Porchetta, Belriso Olindo, 1915-1978, medical graduate, University of Glasgow, Scotland

Belriso Olindo Porchetta was born in Dunoon on the 24 November 1915 . He was the oldest son of an Italian immigrant, Olindo Porchetta, a hairdresser in Dunoon. He studied medicine at the University of Glasgow from 1933-1939, graduating with an MB, Ch B in April 1939 . During his time at University he received the Carnegie Trust Grant. His first professional courses and examinations were in Botany (1933-1934), Zoology (1934-1935), Medical Physics (1934-1935) and Medical Chemistry (1933-1934). His second were in Anatomy (1934-1936) and Physiology (1935-1936). He then studied Materia Medica and Therapeutics (1936-1937) and Pathology (1936-1937). Belriso Olindo Porchetta took final examinations in Medical Jurisprudence (1937), Public Health (1937), Surgery (1939), Medicine (1939) and Midwifery (1939).

After qualifying he worked as House Surgeon and House Physician at Salford Royal Hospital, transferring to a hospital in Carlisle before joining the army at the beginning of the Second World War. He was a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was stationed in North Africa, Sicily and Italy between 1943 and 1945. He performed active service with the 98th General Hospital in Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily and Italy. He was also attached to other units, namely, 96th General Hospital in Algiers in March 1943; 8th CCS in June 1943; 33rd General Hospital in Sicily Sept -Oct 1943; 11th Convalescent Depot, Sicily, Oct-Nov 1943, and the 54th General Hospital in Bari, Italy, Jan -April 1944. After the war he practised as GP in Bradford, Yorkshire. He died on the 19 August 1978 .

Sources: University of Glasgow student records; Imperial War Museum document description 06/39/1.

Marion Isabella MacNeill, born in 1913, graduated with an MA in 1933 from Glasgow University, Scotland. It is not clear why one of her notebooks is contained within this collection.

From the guide to the Papers of Belriso Olindo Porchetta, 1915-1978, medical graduate, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1933-1939, (Glasgow University Archive Services)