Geoffrey Chamberlain

Between 2000 and 2008, he remained at Swansea University as Apothecaries' lecturer in history of medicine. During this time, he produced an internationally successful textbook on the history of obstetrics, From Witchcraft to Wisdom.

In 1994, Chamberlain resigned as editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and as president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists after unknowingly counter-signing a dishonest report on a fabricated story about a successful transplant of an ectopic fetus into the uterine cavity. The concept of ‘gift authorship’ was not uncommon at the time, where, without contributing, a senior name could appear on a paper. It could have happened in many other journals.

In 1989, Chamberlain was elected president of the section of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Royal Society of Medicine. Between 1971 and 1994, he was actively involved in several areas of the RCOG, being elected vice-president from 1984 to 1987 and president from 1993 to 1994 and being a member of the council throughout that whole time. He was also academic head of department and editor in chief of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In 1994, Chamberlain carried out the 1994 Home Birth Study, which demonstrated the safety of planned home births.

He held a consultant post at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital for 12 years from 1970. In 1982 he was appointed professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at St George's Hospital Medical School, where he remained until his resignation in 1995.

Chamberlain's early appointments included placements at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital for Women, and King's College Hospital, London. Subsequently, between 1965 and 1966, he taught at the George Washington Hospital, Washington DC, USA. It was during these years that he performed his controversial fetal and placental research.

He married Jocelyn Olivia Kerley in 1956 and together they had five children.

In 1954, he entered the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, before retiring in 1974 with the rank of surgeon commander.

Geoffrey Victor Price Chamberlain (21 April 1930 – October 2014) was a professor and academic head of department of obstetrics and gynaecology at St George's Hospital, London, editor in chief of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG). At one time, he was president of the obstetrics and gynaecology section at the Royal Society of Medicine. He also authored numerous textbooks and journal articles on obstetrics.

Geoffrey Chamberlain was born on 21 April 1930 in Cardiff to Albert Victor Chamberlain, the Lord Mayor of Cardiff's secretary, and Irene May Chamberlain née Price.