Hugh Spear Pemberton was born on June 3, 1890, in Liverpool, England, the youngest son of Thomas Shepherd Pemberton and Elizabeth Marion [1]. He attended the Liverpool Institute and Liverpool University and graduated in 1913 with first class honors with M.B. and Ch.B. degrees. In the fall of 1913 after obtaining his qualifying medical degrees, he became a resident physician and joined the staff at the David Lewis Northern Hospital in Liverpool where he worked for his entire career. Dr. Pemberton married Sarah Ann Hanley in 1914 and his daughter, Lesley Mary, was born in 1916 [2].

His tenure at the David Lewis Northern Hospital was interrupted by World War I, in which he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in France and Russia. He returned to the David Lewis Northern Hospital in 1918 and was appointed junior physician. He became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1921 and achieved the rank of senior consultant at the David Lewis Northern Hospital in 1924.

Dr. Pemberton was a lecturer in clinical medicine at Liverpool University and was recognized for his skills as a teacher. In addition to the Northern Hospital, he also worked at Liverpool Hospital for Women, the Liverpool Radium Institute and the Neston, Hoylake and West Kirby Cottage Hospitals. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1941. He was chairman of the Birkenhead and Wirral Division of the British Medical Association from 1946 to 1950 and vice president of the Section of Medicine in 1950.

Dr. Pemberton was a dedicated clinician who worked long hours at the hospital and rarely took a day off. He was meticulous, paying close attention to detail and staying late to care for his patients. He was an outstanding teacher who enjoyed discussing medicine with younger colleagues and students. They enjoyed learning from him so much that it became competitive to obtain a position on his team, which was affectionately known as “Pem’s firm” [3]. His devotion to the Northern Hospital was especially evident during World War II when he organized and led the evacuation of patients to a local collegiate institution.

Hugh Spear Pemberton was the first to describe an important physical examination finding in patients with substernal goiter that would later become known as Pemberton’s sign . In a short letter published in the October 5, 1946, issue of The Lancet, Pemberton wrote, “There is a useful sign given by a submerged or intrathoracic goiter which I have employed and taught for many years. It consists in getting the patient to elevate both arms until they touch the sides of the head; after a moment or so, congestion of the face, some cyanosis, and lastly distress become apparent—presumably from narrowing of the thoracic inlet and obstruction of the venous return. I have not seen it in superior mediastinal block. Doubtless the sign has been described before and even bears a name, but I am unaware of it” [4] (Fig. 1). This finding was subsequently termed Pemberton’s sign and has been widely referred to ever since its first description.

Pemberton’s wife died in 1950 and he married Dorothy Alice Parker in 1951. He continued to work as a senior physician at the Northern Hospital until his mandatory retirement in June 1955 at the age of 65. He died in his home in Neston, Cheshire less than 6 months after his retirement on January 15, 1956, at the age of 65.