A farmer’s son, John Allison followed in his uncle’s footsteps into medicine, intending to join him in general practice. However, the uncle’s early death in 1933 changed that and he turned instead to public health. As a junior medical officer of health he was responsible for notifying infectious disease. In 1939 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, and saw service in England, West Africa, and Italy. Apart from malaria contracted in Nigeria, he suffered no ill effects. Indeed, he seemed to live a charmed life, being posted elsewhere whenever something interesting was imminent, much to his dismay. After the war he became a specialist in chest disease in industrial Lanarkshire.
He was much respected and greatly loved by his patients, most of whom were poor and suffered from tuberculosis and other industrial diseases. When he finally retired in his 70s, he often explained that he had worked himself out of a job. Tuberculosis had been conquered. He followed its recent resurgence with interest. In his 90s he was still eager to update himself on the latest developments.
Other interests included rugby, golf, fishing, and farming. He played the bagpipes from his teenage years and set up a pipe band in his regiment during the war.
He married at the outbreak of war and was a wonderful father to his two daughters, who survive him, one of whom followed him into medicine. He also greatly appreciated his four grandsons and five great-grandchildren.
Former consultant chest physician Lanarkshire (b 1911, q Edinburgh 1935; DPH, Glasgow, 1937), died from complications of aortic stenosis on 25 January 2007.