Robert Gosling
Former consultant psychotherapist Tavistock Clinic, London (b Birmingham 1920; q Birmingham 1948; MD, FRCPsych; OBE), d 9 February 2000. His medical training included a Rockefeller scholarship at Cornell University, but was interrupted by four years in a tuberculosis sanatorium in New York, where he first learnt about psychoanalysis from a fellow patient. He also developed a taste for jazz that never left him. A first class scientific mind and a deep knowledge of Shakespeare's plays came together in his psychoanalytical training. He again became ill, with polio, and had to spend several weeks in an iron lung.
Though he maintained an analytic private practice, his passion was to apply psychoanalytic knowledge to public service. He completed his training at the Tavistock Clinic, and in 1968 became its first elected head and devoted the rest of his life to the Tavistock and to the NHS. He brought the clinic into the modern age, creating a multidisciplinary organisation ahead of its time. He saw that clinical intervention alone would never be enough, and took a leading part in developing professional training in groups. Alongside work with general practitioners he was closely involved with the Tavistock and Leicester group relations programmes. These grew out of the clinic's contribution to military officer selection in the second world war. The programmes extended beyond health and social services to business, the clergy, and public and voluntary service staff.
Bob was without pretention and never hid behind theory. He took pleasure in promoting others' imagination and creativity. He retired in 1979, because of increasing deafness, and settled with his wife and two of his children in a Queen Anne farmhouse in Gloucestershire, which he restored himself. He leaves a wife, Veronica; five children; and 10 grandchildren.
Geoffrey Edwin Bond
General practitioner Rickmansworth (b 1919; q St Bartholomew's 1945; MRCS), d 29 July 1998. He worked as a biochemical laboratory assistant and acquired a BSc on the way, before studying medicine. After house jobs and deciding against a career in anatomy he came to Rickmansworth where he worked until his retirement in 1979. By then the practice had grown to five partners. As well as being a much loved doctor he was also a Treasury medical officer, a factory surgeon, and medical officer to the Rickmansworth and Uxbridge Valley Water Company. Geoffrey was in demand as a lecturer and examiner for the Red Cross and the St John Ambulance Brigade, was president of the 13th Decennial Club, and a member of the Fountain Club and the Abernethian Society. He leaves a wife, Sheila; two sons (one an anaesthetist); and a daughter.
by Anthony J Moon and Michael Rope
Colum Michael Connolly
Former consultant chest physician (b Ballybay 1911; q University College Dublin 1935; MD, DPH), died from pneumonia on 2 January 2000. After completing house jobs Colum studied public health and moved to England where he worked before joining the Royal Naval Reserve in 1941. He saw active service in the second world war in Egypt, Crete, Malta, Sicily, and India. After the war he worked in Lincoln and was appointed to Leicester in 1954, the year he obtained the MRCP. In 1977 he retired to Weston-super-Mare, where he was active in charitable work. A devout Catholic, he was president of the Leicester Circle in 1965. It was a matter of surprise and great pride that he was elected FRCP in 1994, 17 years after he retired. He leaves a wife, Margo; three daughters (two of whom are doctors); and five grandchildren.
by David Fairlamb
David Stanley Freestone
Pharmaceutical physician (b 1933; q St Bartholomew's 1956; FFPM), d 4 December 1999. He joined the pharmaceutical industry after a few years in general practice, and in 1969 moved to Wellcome Research Laboratories, where he was director of medical sciences until he retired. David played a major role in developing new medicines for many conditions, including HIV and AIDS, epilepsy, and malaria. Always approachable and enthusiastic, he brought intellect and measured judgment to decisions, and was the architect of a major expansion of staff and facilities during the most successful time of Wellcome's history. After retirement he became editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Medicine and later joint editor of the International Journal of Pharmaceutical Medicine. He was a founder member and an executive director of the Therapeutic Research and Education Organisation and a member of the board of examiners of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. David also worked at the Medicines Control Agency. He left a legacy of things well done and of principles upheld. He leaves a wife, Ellen; four sons; and six grandchildren.
by Robert Smith and others
George William Andrew Gordon
Former general practitioner Edinburgh (b 1905; q Edinburgh 1937), died from cardiac failure on 1 March 2000. His father discouraged his pursuing a medical career, and he became a mature medical student only on his father's death. Bill drove a London bus during the 1926 great strike and spent some years with a trading company in west Africa. He wanted to serve in the Indian Medical Service, but when the second world war started he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was evacuated from France and spent the rest of the war in Egypt and Palestine. After the war he and a partner bought a practice in a slum area of Edinburgh's old town. When this was redeveloped and his patients dispersed most of them asked to stay on his list, and he cared for four generations of some families. He always followed up patients referred to hospital and interviewed the specialist. One consultant at the Royal Infirmary said that Bill was always treated with greatest respect as his diagnoses were usually correct. He retired at the age of 74, and lived a further 20, active years, dividing his time between gardening and playing bridge. He leaves a wife, Elizabeth; four sons (one an anaesthetist); three daughters; and eight grandchildren.
by Nick Gordon
Jack Watson Litchfield
Consultant physician St Mary's Hospital, 1946-72 (b 1909; q Oxford/St Mary's 1933; FRCP), d 4 February 2000. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the second world war in north Africa and Italy and was mentioned in despatches. He was the cardiologist everyone turned to for advice on patients with heart problems. In his early career he was inflenced by Langmead, the first professor of medicine at St Mary's. After the second world war he made rapid progress as a consultant physician, and having been chosen by Lord Moran as a scholar at St Mary's he returned there with his support to run the cardiology department. His colleagues knew that they would get a perspective on the whole person and their problems rather than a flat statement about the cardiac defect. He had an ability to listen to all patients. An engaging characteristic in committee was his ability to show impatience with obfuscation and slowness to see what he thought was obvious. He was a brilliant observer and this was reflected in his interest in all things natural and shown in his love of horticulture, botany, and associated living creatures. When he retired he and his wife, Nan, created gardens, preserved woodland, and made the implements for their care. He leaves two sons and a daughter.
by Stanley Peart
Ronald Morley
Former general practitioner and medical officer of health (b Selby 1916; q Leeds 1939), died from carcinoma of the lung on 14 January 2000. After a brief spell in general practice, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and served as a captain during the second world war in Scotland, west Africa, India, and Burma. In 1946 he purchased a practice in Preston, and with the inception of the NHS and the loss of many of his panel patients he moved to an underdoctored area in the Lancashire coalfield where he developed a successful practice with three partners. By the mid-1950s the strain of active general practice made him look at alternatives, and in 1957 he became a medical inspector of factories. He developed an interest in toxicology in industry, as well as in pneumoconiosis and electrocution. In 1972 there were major changes in the Ministry of Labour and he took the opportunity to become the last senior medical officer of the Northumberland and Durham coalfields. The organisation of services at collieries and contact with miners gave him great pleasure. He was an early member of the Society of Occupational Medicine, was an excellent chairman, and was a good organiser. He enjoyed medical investigation and did original research in accidental electrocution. The proximity of Hadrian's Wall encouraged his interest in archaeology, and he and his wife, Laurina, spent much time excavating. After retirement he continued to work part time until well into his 70s. He took an early interest in computers, loved games and puzzles, and was an excellent card, chess, and scrabble player. He leaves two sons (one a retired consultant pathologist).
by A R Morley
James Hill Whittles
Public health physician Wiltshire, 1955-79 (b 1914; q King's College Hospital 1938; DPH, FFPHM; TD), d 20 January 2000. Jimmy won scholarships throughout his education and was a skilled linguist. During the second world war he served in the western desert, where he assembled a unique collection of reptiles. In Italy he was twice mentioned in despatches and ran the school of malaria control in Brindisi. At the end of the war he was responsible for the health of Hitler's slave labour survivors in Austria. He attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and was awarded the TD and bar. Jimmy's military experience and commitment to child health led him to public health, and in Wiltshire his devoted service enabled his chief, Christopher Lycett, to chair the BMA's public health committee at a critical time. After the 1974 reorganisation he became a consultant in community medicine (child health). Jimmy remained active in retirement, giving learned papers in French to the Cercle Français, and tending a productive garden until the late 1980s. Despite a cruelly progressive disease he never lost his interest in current affairs or his robust sense of humour. He leaves a wife, Edith; a son and a daughter; and seven grandchildren.
by Alexander Macara
George Wiernik
Consultant in radiotherapy and oncology Oxford, 1965-85 (b Berlin 1928; q St Thomas's 1951; MD, FRCR), d 25 February 2000. George trained at an exciting time with the possibility of improving cure rates of hitherto radioresistant cancers by increasing the oxygen tension in their cells. During his specialist training he helped in the complex hyperbaric oxygen treatments and developed his lifelong interest in radiobiology and cancer research. When he came to Oxford he built up the radiobiology laboratory already established and persuaded the authorities to establish a research institute at the Churchill Hospital. He had to raise money from outside sources. His work on the radiobiology of the gut, which is important in the radiation therapy of abdominal and pelvic tumours, still stands as a firm basis for clinical management today. George's dogged determination to achieve each new goal sometimes led him into reverses which he found hard to accept, but the continuation of good research at the institute is a testament to his achievement. His other great achievement at Oxford was to persuade Sir Michael Sobell to build the first NHS run hospice. After his retirement George completed and published the results of a large multicentre clinical trial conducted, with others, during the last 15 years of his clinical practice. This was no small achievement when his poor health often made concentration difficult. He died, as he would have wished, working in the garden he loved. He leaves a wife, Cynthia; four daughters; and 10 grandchildren.
by Christopher Paine