Profiles: Heroes, Role Models and Pioneers of Trinidad and Tobago - by Nasser Khan

112 and Adult Cardiology Services for over 25 years and retired from the General Hospital in 1990 as Medical Chief of Staff. He played a significant role in the introduction of echocardiography, which is important in the diagnosis of heart disease. • 1989 Chaconia Medal Gold • 1990 Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association Scroll of Honour • 1999: Honour award from the Caribbean Cardiac Society ANTOINE LEOTAUD (1814-1867) H e was believed to have had the largest midwifery practice in Trinidad in the mid-nineteenth century. His writings on medicine won him medals from the Paris Society of Medicine and he was also a zoologist, writing about our birds ( Les Oiseaux de la Trinidad ) and fishes. ARTHUR MCSHINE (1876-1948) A rthur Hutton McShine was Trinidad and Tobago’s first qualified specialist eye surgeon. A generous person, he helped especially the nation’s poor, for over 40 years. He was educated at Eastern Boys’ Government School and Queen’s Royal College. In 1896, he won an Island Scholarship and chose to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He helped to form the Trinidad Association for the Prevention and Treatment of Tuberculosis to improve living conditions in Port-of-Spain and to reduce spread of the disease. He was a member of the Council of the Medical Board for 20 years and served as Vice President and President. He served at the Trinidad Co-operative Bank for 32 years, 28 of which he was Chairman of the Board. During these years, the Bank became known as the “Poor Man’s Friend”. In 1914, when the City Council of Port-of-Spain was re-established, he was among its first elected members. He was a member of the Council for 14 years, and was elected Mayor from 1921 to 1922 and