Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander David Rice (8 April 1914 – 13 September 1997) was an English physician, naval officer, psychiatrist, first-class cricketer, and pioneer of lithium therapy.
After completing his medical studies at Cambridge University and St George's Hospital,[1] Rice joined the Royal Naval Reserve in 1939 as a Surgeon Lieutenant.
In the early 1950s an Australian colleague showed him an article by John Cade in The Medical Journal of Australia on the beneficial effects of lithium on patients with mania.
He wrote up the results in a 1956 edition of the Journal of Mental Science, after which his work was followed up in Britain by his colleague Ronald Maggs and others.
[9] Rice was also captain in the corresponding match in 1961, when his team included the current Test player Tom Graveney and the 49-year-old Sussex veteran George Cox.