Cairns worked as a neurosurgeon at the
London Hospital and with
Harvey Cushing at Harvard before setting up the Nuffield Department of Surgery in Oxford, in which he became the first Nuffield Professor of Surgery. He was a key figure in the development of neurosurgery as a speciality, the formation of the
Oxford University Medical School, and the treatment of head injuries during the Second World War. He is cited in the U.S Army's Medical Corps reports to the Theater Commanding General as one of the first doctors to treat GEN
George S. Patton following his automobile accident on 9 December 1945; Patton died of pulmonary edema twelve days later. The Cairns Library (one of the
Bodleian Libraries) at the
John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford is named after him, as is the medical school Hugh Cairns Surgical Society. A
blue plaque for him at his 1920s residence at
Loughton has been erected. In June 1946, he received the title of Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. While at the London Hospital and in Oxford, Cairns trained US-born surgeon Joseph Buford Pennybacker, who in 1952 took over as director of the
Radcliffe's neurosurgery department, a job he held until he retired in 1971. Profoundly affected by treating
T. E. Lawrence for head injuries during the six days before the latter died after a
motorcycle accident, Cairns began a long study of what he saw as the unnecessary loss of life by motorcycle
despatch riders through head injuries. His research led to the use of
crash helmets by both military and civilian motorcyclists. As a consequence of treating Lawrence, Cairns would ultimately save the lives of many motorcyclists. ==Death and legacy==