Yet another Beaufort Wester who has made a name for himself in medicine was Nathan Finkelstein, known throughout South Africa as Mr Pharmacy. Natie’s lifelong friend, Beaufort Wester Eugene Weinberg, went on to become one of South Africa’s leading paediatric allergists and head of the Department of Paediatrics at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in…

Another Beaufort West shopkeeper’s son, who distinguished himself in medicine, was Victor Dubowitz. He pioneered major developments in pediatric neurology and made meaningful clinical and research contributions in the fields of neonatal neurology and neuromuscular disorders in children.  In 1965 he described a rare and difficult to diagnose, genetic disorder, which was named Dubowitz Syndrome…

Daniel Pieter de Villiers, born in Beaufort West in 1900, and fondly known as “DP”, studied medicine at the Universities of Cape Town and Liverpool in England. At the latter, he met the great, highly respected, internationally known, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, Blair Bell, who became a lifelong friend. Blair guided DP on a…

Christiaan Neethling Barnard was the son of a Beaufort West mission preacher. He rocketed to world fame on December 3, 1967, when he transplanted the world’s first human heart. On that historic day his brother, Marius, was a member of the transplant team. Marius rose from the same humble beginnings to become a highly respected…

Cecil Alport, the son of a Beaufort West shopkeeper’s assistant, studied at the University of Cape Town and in Europe. He also returned briefly to South Africa and in time pioneered a cure for a nephritis, a kidney complaint, which was named Alport’s Disease in his honour.  In the early 1900s he wrote an exposé…