Papers of Dr David J Wilkinson (concerning A Charles King), 1934-1987

Biographical history

A Charles King (1888-1965) was an engineer and instrument maker who specialised in anaesthetic apparatus from the early 1920s, a period of technical development in the specialty. Following a series of financial problems King's company was taken over by Coxeter's, which subsequently became part of the British Oxygen Company (BOC). King worked with leading anaesthetists in developing instruments and amassed a collection of equipment, which he donated to the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland in 1953 and which has subsequently been augmented by further acquisitions. The collection was moved from King's premises in Devonshire Street to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1965, to the premises of the Association of Anaesthetists at no 9 Bedford Square in 1987 and to 21 Portland Place in 2002. For further information see editorial on King in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, xxv, no 2 (Apr 1953); 'The A Charles King Collection of early anaesthetic apparatus', Anaesthesia, vol xxv, no 4 (Oct 1970).

Content

• Papers, 1934-1987, created and accumulated by Dr David J Wilkinson and relating to A Charles King, comprising correspondence and other papers, 1982-1987, on King, including biographical information on his education, army service with the London Rifle Brigade in World War One and career as an anaesthetic instrument maker; earlier correspondence relating to the King Collection at the Association of Anaesthetists, 1963-1964
• Copies of articles on King, 1934-1987 and typescript inventory of the collection
• King's bookplate, undated, and envelope of his business, 1934

Related Material

Part of Charles King's library is available in the Anaesthesia Heritage Centre as well as a CD containing images from his scrap books, slides of the Charles King collection, artifacts from the Charles King collection.   The collections also contain articles, books and photographic material relating to Charles King.