William Francis Victor Bonney FRCP FRCS (17 December 1872 – 4 July 1953) was a prominent British gynaecological surgeon.

[3] Bonney, subsequently spent the next four decades developing techniques in gynaecological cancer surgery, operations that conserved fertility, antiseptic techniques, after care of the bowel following pelvic surgery and advocating Lower segment Caesarean section as an alternative to traditional caesarian section.

[5] Bonney also had the experience, with his colleague Berkeley, of operating on thousands of wounded soldiers who arrived at Clacton, Essex throughout the First World War, procedures including extracting bullets, and shrapnel.

[2][6] He regarded the traditional caesarean section as bloody and when he gave the Bradshaw lecture in 1934,[7] he referred to it as a "smash and grab raid".

[6] He was a pioneer figure in the domain of cervical cancer and commanded immense fame in the radical procedure of Wertheim hysterectomy, performing 500 of these in the course of his career.

This was before blood transfusions, chemotherapy, antibiotics and radiotherapy and with only early anaesthetics and little understanding of water and electrolyte balance.

At a time, when myomectomies fell out of favour due to the associated blood loss, post-operative haematomas and frequent post-operative infections, he developed an ingenious surgical clamp,[9][13] the "Bonney myomectomy clamp",[14][15] to temporarily halt the blood supply of the uterus during the operation.

It allowed the shelling out of the uterine fibroids while still preserving the fertility of women of reproductive age, thus giving them a chance to have children later on.

[9][17] In 1934, he made it clear that he "strenuously advocated myomectomy in preference to hysterectomy in all those cases in which the removal of the uterus is liable to be followed by undesirable psychological effects.

"[18] As a consequence of his wife's experience with gynaecological procedures, Bonney took interest in a number of surgical scenarios including the functioning of bowel after major surgery.

[3][14][20] This was used to sterilise and stain the vagina, the outer surface of the cervix and the body from breast to mid-thigh[9] prior to the gynaecological procedures.

[8][21] He later described how the staining of the vagina with his solution "is a great advantage when – as, for instance, in total hysterectomy – that canal has to be opened from above, for the deep coloration defines it very clearly.

[24] Bonney's most significant books were the Textbook of Gynaecological Surgery[25] (1911) with Comyns Berkeley and The Technical Minutiae of extended Myomectomy and Ovarian Cystectomy (1946).

Two years later, Annie suffered from very heavy periods which in turn resulted in severe anaemia and was corrected by a hysterectomy, thus preventing her having children.