ABSTRACT
This biographic historical narrative chronicles the lifetime of Horatio Orishejolomi Thomas. He was the third Nigerian doctor to qualify as a surgeon (1949), first Nigerian to obtain the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1949), first indigenous professor of surgery in Nigeria (1962), the third indigenous Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan (1972-1975), second President of the West African College of Surgeons (1965-1967), and the first Nigerian Editor of a medical journal (West African Medical Journal; 1952-1979). He was one of the most prominent doctors in post-independence Nigeria, whose career spanned 1942 to 1979. Perhaps his most important contribution to nation building was the successful establishment of the University of Lagos’s medical school and its teaching hospital in 1962.
Keywords: Biography; Horatio Orishejolomi Thomas; History; Nigeria; Surgery; Pioneer