William Lindsay (1952–2017)

William (Bill) Lindsay passed away far too soon – on 26 March 2017. His passing was a shock to his family, his friends, and the community of intellectual disability scholars, researchers and clinicians. Bill was much loved and respected. He was one of those special people whom one never forgets.

This obituary has been composed unforgivably long after it should have been. Why? I didn’t want to write it, and I still cannot quite come to terms with how such an intellectual powerhouse and healthy and energetic colleague could no longer be with us. I would rather pretend that he is on the other side of the world, cycling up ridiculously steep hills, railing about being prevented by COVID-19 from holidaying in Bhutan, and formulating new research endeavours. But I could not relinquish the editorship of PPL without doing the right thing and formally recording how influential Bill’s scholarly contribution has been, how widely he was valued, and how much he will continue to be missed.

Bill was born in Glasgow and attended Kilmarnock Academy. He studied at Strathclyde University, where he commenced as an architecture student but switched to psychology, graduating in 1973. In 1994 he completed his PhD at the University of Aberdeen. He met his wife Isobel in Strathclyde and married her in 1974. Three children, David, Jennifer and Amy, followed. He was extremely proud of all three and would often speak about them and recount their various achievements.

Everyone has stories about Bill. Early when I knew him, he came to dinner at our house in Melbourne on one of his flying visits after another Asian adventure. I had made sure that there was an interesting whisky for him to try – because, obviously, everyone from Scotland is a whisky connoisseur. He disabused me of that myth perfunctorily, and we focused on the food, about which he was very gracious and talked deep into the night. I was scheduled to spend time with him at Paisley and to speak at the University of West of Scotland a few weeks after he passed away. The trip there was bleak for his absence, although warm with positive memories of his life and contributions.

From his teenage years, Bill was an inveterate traveller. He and I criss-crossed the world regularly, meeting at various conferences where we spoke. He was a great planner of trips and raconteur about his peregrinatory exploits and adventures. In latter years he was a regular visitor to Australia and New Zealand, a highlight of which was when he gave the Myers Oration in 2007. Deservedly, for many years Bill was on the editorial board of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, a role in which he regularly assisted, insightfully and generously, with peer reviewing.

Bill held many prestigious roles, among them being Clinical Director in Scotland and Head of Research for Castlebeck Care, Head of Psychology in NHS Tayside and a Consultant Psychologist with the State Hospital, Carstairs, the high secure hospital serving Scotland and Northern Ireland. He was Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Head of Research and Clinical Director in Scotland for the Danshell Group. Bill was Professor of Learning Disabilities and Forensic Psychology at the University of Abertay, Dundee, and he held honorary professorships at Bangor University in Wales, Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, the University of West of Scotland (in Paisley), and Northumbria University in England. He received numerous awards in recognition of his contributions to the science and practice of psychology with people with intellectual disabilities, including from the British Psychological Society and the National Association for Dually Diagnosed (NADD) in the United States. However, these were honours that sat lightly with Bill, and he was far from focused upon them or revelling in the high regard in which he was held.

Bill was the awardee of large sums in research funds, in particular for studying cognitive therapy and offenders with intellectual disabilities. He published well over 300 research articles and book chapters and gave countless numbers of presentations in many countries. He was the author and co-editor of a significant number of books, including William Lindsay, The Treatment of Sex Offenders with Developmental Disabilities: A Practice Workbook (Wiley, 2009); Leam Craig, William Lindsay and Kevin Browne (Eds.), Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Offenders with Intellectual Disabilities (Wiley, 2010); William Lindsay, John Taylor and Peter Sturmey (Eds.), Offenders with Developmental Disabilities (Wiley, 2012); William Lindsay and John Taylor (Eds.), The Wiley Handbook on Offenders with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (Wiley, 2018); and William Lindsay, Leam Craig and Dorothy Griffiths (Eds.), The Wiley Handbook on What Works for Offenders with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (Wiley, 2019). Publication of his research ventures has continued after his death.

Bill’s work on offenders with intellectual disabilities, including those who engage in sexual offending, was ground-breaking and sustained. It emerged from clinical assessments and treatments and provided important fresh data and evaluations. At a personal level, he was the inspiration for my own work on forensic issues relating to autism spectrum disorder, foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and associated conditions. He had a particular interest in protective factors that have the potential to assist in clinical decision-making and the provision of informed expert evidence to the courts.

There have been many fitting tributes to Bill. Amongst them was an outstanding special issue of the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, a journal to which he made many important scholarly contributions.¹ He was an entrepreneurial scholar, encouraging colleagues to think broadly and humanely about their subject matter and always willing to engage and debate about current issues. As his co-author and colleague, Professor John Taylor, has said of him, ‘Bill’s impact on the intellectual disabilities field has been immense. Importantly, however, his academic enquiry was always informed by his work as a clinical psychologist with people with intellectual disabilities and this direct contact with people and their lives, problems and needs is something he always maintained, despite the many and varied demands on his time and attention’.²

There were many inspirational aspects to Bill, but in particular I remember his vibrancy and his compassionate commitment to his clients and, more broadly, to achieving more humane and therapeutic responses to those with disabilities. I loved his enthusiasm and admired his clinical work, his determination to ‘survive’ bureaucracy and his determination to intrude reliable data into decision-making about offenders of all kinds, but in particular those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He has left a superb intellectual and clinical legacy, but many of us miss his dry sense of humour, his sense of mischief, his friendship and his collegiality.