Charles Arthur St Hill

Short abstract

Pathologist who was involved in many high profile criminal cases, including the Moors murders

As Home Office pathologist for Liverpool and the north west, Charles St Hill was for a while probably the most well known doctor in the area. He appeared in many high profile murder cases and his name was constantly in the press. The most notorious of these cases was the Moors murders of the mid-1960s, so named because serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley buried their victims' bodies in deserted moorland above Manchester. Charles did the autopsy on one of Brady and Hindley's five victims and gave evidence at the Chester Assizes, at which Brady and Hindley were sentenced to life imprisonment. After that, Charles never spoke about the case, not even with colleagues.

Figure 1.

Charles was a Home Office pathologist for many years and was awarded the Silver Jubilee medal for his services and elected an honorary fellow of the Association of Forensic Medicine. He was director of the sub-department of forensic medicine at Liverpool University and taught forensic medicine and general pathology to generations of medical students. The exciting nature of his subject always guaranteed a full house at his lectures.

He had come to Liverpool from Bristol—where he was a pathology lecturer at the university—following his appointment as consultant pathologist to the Royal Southern Hospital. Despite his hospital and Home Office commitments he found time for academic work, contributing to textbooks and writing articles.

He leaves a wife, Grace, and three daughters.

Former consultant pathologist Royal Southern Hospital, Liverpool, and Home Office pathologist (b Bristol 1916; q Bristol 1939; FRCPath), d 15 October 2003.