Dr. Tattersall honoured with OBE
His Excellency the Governor, Mr. F. J. Savage, CMG, LVO, OBE, has announced that Dr. Robin Tattersall has been made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year’s Honours List, published in London on 30 December 2000. The announcement stated that Dr. Tattersall has made an outstanding contribution to the British Virgin Islands for nearly 40 years in the fields of surgery, international yachting and community work. Dr. Tattersall arrived in Tortola in 1965 to take up the newly created post of Government Surgeon.
At that time there were only three physicians in the country
and apart from his duties at Peebles Hospital, he also served
all the district clinics, usually travelling to the out-islands
in his own boat.During the early 1970s, when Anguilla was left
without a surgeon, he volunteered to help them out and over a
period of four years travelled there twice a month to carry out
surgery.
Although his original tour of duty was for two years, he continued
until 1976 when Dr. D. Orlando Smith returned to the Territory
and replaced him as a Government Surgeon. However, he had decided
that he wished to make the BVI his home and with the help of
the late Leopold Smith, and generous financial support from the
late Percy Chubb, he acquired the Purple Palace. He then started
to convert it into a small private hospital, which is known today
as the Bougainvillea Clinic.
Dr. Tattersall received his medical training at Cambridge University and St. George’s Hospital Medical School developing a great interest in plastic and reconstructive surgery. At the Bougainvillea Clinic he developed this specialty and over the next 25 years the Clinic has achieved an international reputation. In the late 1970s Dr Tattersall was able to persuade Dr. Ralph Blocksma to join him and together they started the first BVI Medical Conference, and subsequently the annual BVI Plastic Surgery Workshop, both of which have achieved international recognition.
He is a co-founder of the BVI Rugby Club, and one of the early members of the BVI Yacht Club of which he is a Trustee and a past Commodore. Dr. Tattersall yachting successes include being overall Champion at Antigua Sailing Week and the Rolex Regatta. He represented the BVI in the Olympic Games in both Los Angeles and Barcelona. In 1968 he started the first bare boat charter company in the BVI; he is a member of the Rotary Club of Tortola since its inception.
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