Derek Paul Stevenson
BMA secretary 1958-76 (b 1911; q Guy's 1935; FRCGP, CBE), d 4 March 2001. After qualifying he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving with distinction in the Far East and in France. His posting to oversee medical recruitment at the War Office brought him into close touch with Charles Hill, then BMA secretary. After the war Hill “recruited” him to the BMA staff. He got there just as Aneurin Bevan introduced the NHS Bill; he retired 30 years later after many of the perennial crises of the NHS. He adapted quickly to the storms of an ultra-democratic association, having several favourable qualities. A man of distinguished presence—once called “debonair”—he was a fine judge of the art of the utmost possible; intensely loyal to the association and to his colleagues, to whom he delegated with trust and judgment. Above all, he realised that the NHS and the professions were news; he made and kept close links with the fourth estate, in whose ranks he had many friends. This involved much commitment, well in excess of 9 to 5; figuratively, he “lived over the shop.” His BMA years involved too much to catalogue. Among the highlights two royal commissions (on pay and on education of doctors); an uprising against the reform of the General Medical Council; the “battle of the pay beds”; and, domestically, a major reform of the BMA itself. As ambassador overseas, Stevenson was first secretary of the Commonwealth Medical Association, and later chairman of the World Medical Association. On his retirement in 1976, the BMA awarded him its gold medal as “an outstanding leader, a tireless champion of the profession, and a great secretary.” He had earlier been awarded an honorary doctorate. One might think such a career precluded all else. Not so. Derek was for 60 years married to his greatest supporter, Pam, who survives him together with their daughter, two sons, and grandchildren. His long years of retirement let him devote to them his love and the time of which the BMA had deprived them. And he found time to play good golf, and to sail.
Hugh Jackson Houston
General practitioner Harrogate 1959-99 (b 1934; q Queen's Belfast 1957; DCH; MRCGP), died from cancer of the pancreas on 18 November 2000. He held posts in child health and obstetrics in Belfast and Chatham before entering general practice in Harrogate. He retired 40 years to the day after starting. He was a trainer to doctors in the district vocational training scheme. Jackson was a lovely caring man, whose warmth and sense of humour made him excellent company. Outside medicine, his main interest was his family, but he also enjoyed golf, other sports, gardening, travel, wine, and antiques. He leaves a wife, Ailsa; three children; and four grandchildren.
by Alisdair Stewart and Sefton Suffern
Samuel Thompson (Tom) Irwin
General practitioner Andover 1946-82 (b Belfast 1915; q Queen's Belfast 1938), d 2 April 2000. As a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, he was involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk, field hospitals in El Alamein, and returned to Normandy on D-Day. He later helped at Belsen camp, a subject about which he declined to speak. Demobilised in 1946 as a major, he joined a singlehanded practice, which grew to be the largest four man partnership in town by the end of the 1960s. He became senior partner in 1959, and was a driving force behind the new health centre. Outside medicine, he enjoyed sailing in his motor yacht, golf, and visits to his daughter in Corfu. Predeceased by his elder daughter, he leaves a wife, Pam, a daughter and two grandchildren.
by Arthur G Blyth
John Stephen Phillips Jones
Former consultant histopathologist City Hospital Nottingham and Home Office pathologist (b 1929; q Middlesex Hospital 1955; MD, FRCPath), died from vascular complications of diabetes on 7 December 2000. Trained in pathology at the Middlesex and Royal London Hospitals, he was appointed consultant in histopathology to the City and General Hospitals in Nottingham in 1964. At the London Hospital he had developed interests in lung pathology, particularly in asbestos related pleural disease, and in forensic pathology, subjects in which he became an expert with notable contributions to the literature, and as a Home Office pathologist. He played a major role in the development of the Nottingham University Medical School of which he was the first clinical sub dean and was created a special professor of forensic pathology and medical jurisprudence. He initiated and guided a successful public appeal for the creation of the City Hospital Medical Research Centre, for which his charming and persuasive qualities, and boundless energies were particularly useful. The development of insulin dependent diabetes failed to interfere with his enthusiasm and drive, but complications developed in the early 1990s requiring bilateral below knee leg amputations. With characteristic courage he mastered two artificial legs and walked again, even to the extent of visiting scenes of crime with the police, who had tremendous admiration for his skills and spirit. He leaves a wife, Valerie, and two sons by his first marriage to Ann.
by Roger Cotton
Cesari Maltoni
Professor of general pathology and professor of experimental pathology University of Bologna (b 1930; q Bologna 1955), d 22 January 2001. He was a pioneer in the field of experimental carcinogenicity, studying the properties of industrial and environmental agents with results that had serious impacts internationally. His discovery about the carcinogenicity of vinyl chloride monomer in 1974, for example, shook up the chemical industry, and led to virulent but unsuccessful attempts at character assassination. He survived all that and preserved his independence, continuing to be funded by the state and by the United States National Institutes of Health, and went on to make further discoveries about the carcinogenicity of common agents at low dose. He co-founded a small international organisation of independent scientists named after Bernardino Ramazzini, a famous Italian physician of the 18th century: it is dedicated to the promotion of public and environmental health.
by Morris Greenberg
Dorothy Anne Morgan
Former family planning doctor Hampshire and Powys (b Conway 1920; q Leeds 1945; MRCS), d 28 September 2000. She moved to Southampton in 1947 on her husband's appointment as consultant radiotherapist. After working in general practice, she specialised in family planning work after 1955, being appointed an inspecting doctor by the Family Planning Association in 1964. She set up a domiciliary family planning service in Southampton docklands, in particular among what were then termed “problem families.” This pioneering project, which was particularly welcomed by the local prostitutes, was funded by the Eugenics Society from 1961 to 1964 and thereafter by Southampton Corporation. This early example of outreach services played a valuable part in making contraceptive services widely available to all women at a time when such provision was being opposed in some quarters. She went on to work full time in medical administration, in particular developing reproductive healthcare services, first with Hampshire County Council, then with Hampshire Health Authority, and finally with Powys Area Health Authority until her retirement in 1985. She leaves two sons.
by Max Elstein
William Michael O'Connor Moore
Former consultant obstetrician and university reader St Mary's Hospital, Manchester, 1967-95 (b 1931; q Cork 1954; FRCOG), died from colon cancer on 21 January 2001. He was medical adviser on population limitation to the government of Mauritius and a research fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and he worked in Kampala. In Manchester he helped demonstrate that poor placentation in early gestation seriously reduced fetal weight in late pregnancy: he then helped set up the Central Manchester Child Growth Project for monitoring the fetus in early pregnancy. He repeatedly used the letters page of the Times to warn about the dangers of applying advances in veterinary science to the creation of human beings and to question the wisdom of investing so heavily in hospital based high technology. His firm faith and ethical principles formed the framework in which he conducted his personal life and medical practice. He leaves a wife, Patricia, and three sons.
by John Scotson
Owen Parry-Jones
Former general practitioner Cardiff (b Anglesey 1922; q Cardiff 1948; MRCS), died after a long illness on 26 November 2000. He was in practice for many years in the Grangetown area of Cardiff. Owen had served in the army and was commanding officer of the Military Hospital, Baron's Cross, Leominster. He had also held junior posts at Morriston Hospital, Swansea. He leaves a wife, Anita, and two children.
by Frank Powell
Henry Bruce Torrance
Former consultant surgeon Manchester Royal Infirmary 1959-88 (b Edinburgh 1927; q Edinburgh 1949; FRCSEd, FRCS), died from cancer on 8 January 2001. After house posts, he served in the medical division of the Royal Air Force. Returning to Edinburgh, he became a research scholar, then a registrar in the department of gastroenterology at the Western General. In 1957 he was appointed lecturer in the department of surgical science, where he continued his research on the liver and pancreas. As consultant surgeon, he was awarded several visiting professorships, and in 1969 was elected the 105th member of the James IV Association of Surgeons. Bruce was a keen sailor and golfer. He was also a good trumpeter and as a student was a regular member of the band that played at the University Union Palais. Predeceased by his wife, Isobel, he leaves three children.
by J E Newsam
Gerald Wiseman
Former reader in physiology and honorary lecturer in the department of biomedical sciences, University of Sheffield (b 1923; q University College Hospital 1947; PhD, MD), d 8 December 2000. He placed Sheffield on the intestinal transfer map and made the physiology department a mecca for researchers. He showed that the transfer of amino acids across the intestinal cells into the bloodstream was actually an active process rather than simple diffusion. Gerry was a nice man and easy to get on with, but was the archetypal loner, difficult to get to know. However, if you succeeded in breaking down the barriers you were treated to a person with a considerable intellect and, on rare occasions, a surprising sense of humour. In a biting but surprisingly perceptive article in the student magazine, Gerry was described as “a low-sized enigmatic man who achieved the gravity and maturity of an adult at the age of two and saw no good reason to change it.” Indeed Gerry's physical appearance remained virtually unchanged, until near the end, over the four decades that I had the privilege to know him.
by Anthony Angel