Ronald Rodger Gordon

Short abstract

Paediatrician who made a detailed study of intersexuality

Ronald Gordon had a brilliant war record and a distinguished career in paediatrics. During the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk his bravery in amputating the leg of a badly wounded soldier in the street, during extremely heavy dive bombing attacks and without cover of any kind, gained him the Military Cross. In Tunisia his battalion suffered many casualties; he went forward under heavy fire to tend the wounded and conduct them back to British lines, for which action he received a bar to his MC. Later, at Arnhem, he volunteered to remain behind to look after the wounded knowing that, by so doing, he would be captured.

Figure 1.

As a consultant paediatrician at the City General Hospital in Sheffield, he created a model premature baby unit as well as a unit for adolescent patients, who were regarded as individuals in their own right rather than just part of a children's ward. He also made a detailed study of intersexuality and cowrote a book, The Intersexual Disorders, which was notable for the study of 21 patients who were reregistered as the opposite sex from that in which they had been placed at birth.

Later he was additionally appointed as a consultant to the Sheffield Children's Hospital. He made several visits to Libya to advise on developments there and he was once summoned to the tent of Colonel Gadaffi, whose son had fallen ill.

Predeceased by his wife, Barbara, he leaves two children.

Ronald Rodger Gordon, former consultant paediatrician Sheffield (b 1914; q Glasgow 1937; MC, MD, FRCP), d 6 March 2003.