The Herald

50 years ago

SALISBURY, 19 November 1968. — Three of the 16 students from the Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine at the University College of Rhodesia who yesterday qualified as the first Rhodesian-trained doctors achieved an honours standard, beating their parent university, Birmingham, where two out of 90 students reached the same standard last year.

One student out of a total of 17 was unsuccessful, and has been permitted to sit supplementary examinations in part two of the examinations.

Those who obtained honours were Dr John Knottenbelt, who was top of the class and was awarded the Anglo-American Corporation award worth $100, Dr Sue Cornthwaite and Dr George Webster.

The students were the first to enter the College’s medical school in March, 1963.

The Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Prof, Lindsay Davidson, yesterday attributed the high standard of the students, to the small size of the medical school.