Umedram Lalbhai Desai Biography 
Dr. Umedram Lalbhai Desai was a very talented and famous medical doctor in India during the time of the British Raj, who lived during the period, 1869–1930. He took different medical qualifications from various universities across the globe. He was given the title, Rao Sahib. He was the inventor of Screw Bone Perforator and instruments for Wiring Fractured Bones, which holds a patent. Indian actress in the 1930s and 1940s, Leela Desai was his daughter with his second wife, Satyabala Devi, a musician in the early 1900s. His second daughter Monica Desai married famous filmmaker, Phani Majumdar.
Umedram Lalbhai Desai was born in 1869 into a Gujarati family. Desai was born in Vyara, Valod in Surat district on 16 November 1869 into a rich Brahmin family. He was the only son of Ankar Bai and Lalbhai Desai, a landowner who owned vast amounts of land in Valod. He got married at the age of 17 to Diwali Bai, as arranged by their parents. Two sons were born in this wedlock. Desai attended the Grant Medical College in Mumbai in 1987 and was listed as a "Gaikavad Scholar" in the University Calendar 1887-1888. Desai became a member of the Theosophical Society founded by Madame Blavatsky during his early 20s, and wrote many publications for the society.
Desai was sent to England by Sir Sayaji Rao III Gaekwad, Maharaja of Baroda, to pursue his education in Medicine. Thus he joined Victoria University Owens College in Manchester, England to study medicine in the year 1892. In 1894, at the age of 25, Desai attained his Triple Qualification, and also obtained many more medical diplomas before he returned back to India for a brief period in 1898. During this year, he wrote an article called the Plague of India, and British parliament too was impressed by his writings.
He worked at the Welsh Military Hospital in Springfontein, South Africa to get working experience, and also completed his medical thesis "Antivenene as an efficacious remedy against the venom of poisonous snakes M.D. Thesis" in Cape Colony, Queenstown, South Africa. Desai returned to India as a doctor in 1901, with several medical degrees and titles, and was regarded as one of the greatest physicians of early half of 20th century. He left his first wife before he moved to Mumbai to continue with his practice, and married a 13-year old child widow at the age of 36. Satyabala Devi, a musician was the daughter of a Zamindar from Bihar.
In this wed lock, they had 5 children, of whom Shanti married the nephew of Sir Rabindranath Tagore, Monica married Phani Majumdar and Ramola married the grandson of Nawab Sirajul Islam. Leela Desai was a very famous actress of 1930s. In his third marriage with Gunobati, he had 6 offsprings. He passed away in 1930.
Published: N/A
Updated: April 29, 2018
