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T S Donovan, Mb, Chb, Mch, FrcsSource: The British Medical Journal, Vol. 281, No. 6242 (Sep. 13, 1980), p. 752Published by: BMJStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25441364 .

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752 BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL VOLUME 281 13 SEPTEMBER 1980

OBITUARY

Contributions to this column must be submitted exclusively to the BMJ.

Sir GEORGE PICKERING FRS, MD, FRCP

Sir George Pickering, formerly regius pro fessor of medicine at Oxford University and

president of the BMA 1963-4, died on 3 September. He was 76.

George White Pickering was born on

26 June 1904 in Northumberland and edu

^^^^^^^^^^^^ cated at Dulwich

versity College Hospital to work in the department of clinical

research under Sir Thomas Lewis, at a time when UCH included on its staff five other Fellows of the Royal Society: Wilfred Tr?ner, T R Elliott, C R Harington, Charles Bolton, and A E Boycott. At UCH he began his

work on the circulation and especially hyper tension.

In 1939 he was appointed professor of medicine and director of the medical clinic at St Mary's Hospital. During the war he

worked at the sector hospital at Harefield, where he undertook much of the teaching of medical students, who lived at the hospital during the period of hostilities. On his return to St Mary's in 1945 he expanded his research unit as fast as circumstances allowed and gathered together a team of young

physicians interested in cardiovascular dis orders. He was a member of the University Grants Committee from 1944 to 1954 and of the Medical Research Council from 1954 to

1958, and so accumulated a wide knowledge of teaching and research throughout Britain.

In 1955 he published High Blood Pressure, which at once became a classic text. Much of the book had been written during a term

spent in Magdalen College in 1954, and in 1956 he was appointed regius professor of

medicine at Oxford University. During the next 12 years he played a leading part in the

development of the clinical school of medicine at Oxford, while continuing his own research and producing further major texts on hyper tension.

He was elected FRCP in 1938 and "was

knighted in 1957. In 1960 he was elected

FRS, and he received honorary degrees and other distinctions from many universities in Britain and overseas. He served on the BMA Council from 1962 to 1964 and was President in 1963-4. He was elected master of Pembroke

College in 1968, and on his retirement from the regius chair he took up his new duties

with enthusiasm. In 1974 he published

Creative Malady, a provocative account of

psychoneuroses in leading historical figures; the same year he retired from the mastership of Pembroke and was elected an honorary fellow of the college. He continued writing however, and in 1978 published The Quest for Excellence in Medical Education.

He is survived by his wife, a son, and three

daughters.

T S DONOVAN MB, CHB, MCH, FRCS

Mr T S Donovan, formerly a consultant

orthopaedic surgeon in Birmingham, died on

24 August at Scarborough after a short illness.

He was 79.

Thomas Smith Donovan was born, bred, and educated and practised in Birmingham.

He attended King Edward's school, and while an undergraduate at Birmingham University he obtained blues in boxing and rugby foot ball. He qualified in 1924, proceeding to

FRCS(Ed) in 1929, FRCS (Eng) in 1930, and MCh (Orth) Liverpool in 1931. A visit to Border's Clinic in Vienna spurred on an

interest in orthopaedics, increased by a

period as residenr surgical officer at the

Shropshire Orthopaedic Hospital. In 1939 he

joined the consultant staff of the Royal

Orthopaedic Hospital and the Queen'?

Hospital, Birmingham, where as casualty surgeon he was concerned with the first air

raid casualties before entering the RAMC.

Returning to civilian life in 1946, he con

tinued working at the General Hospital and after 1960 the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Besides the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, he

held appointments at Kidderminster District

and General Hospital and St Chad's. His

widespread practice drew patients from a large part of the West Midlands and led to a busy surgical life, for his opinion in orthopaedics

was in constant demand. His courteous manner

and keen sense of humour gained him great respect from his patients and from members

of the medical profession. Always punctilious in his work, he seemed never rushed and always

had time to listen to other people's problems. An outstanding characteristic was tenacity of

purpose and a determination never to let a

point of argument go by whatever the cost.

This characteristic made him a formidable member of any committee. In operating he

used a meticulous no-touch technique with

great attention to detail. An outstanding medical teacher, both for undergraduates, who

liked his unambiguous approach, and for

graduates in orthopaedic training, he was

appointed lecturer in. orthopaedics by the

university in 1956. For some years he was an

able president of the League of Orthopaedic Nurses and Physiotherapists.

Tom Donovan was an exceptionally keen and talented fisherman of both the trout and

the salmon. He amassed great experience in salmon fishing over a two-mile stretch of the

River Wye such that his opinion was often

sought by less favoured fisherman. His friend

ship once gained was steadfast and never

wavered, and his advice was always sound. After retiring in 1966 from medical practice

he accepted increasing blindness with fortitude.

Tom Donovan is survived by his wife Joan, and two sons, one of whom is in medical

practice, the other is a farmer.?JRP.

R H DOBBS BA, MD, FRCP

Dr R H Dobbs, formerly a consultant paedia trician at the London Hospital, died on 21

August at the age of 75. Richard Heyworth Dobbs was born on

10 May 1905, and was educated at Bedales

School, Downing

College, Cam

bridge, and the London Hospital, where he qualified

in 1930. Enter

prisingly, he per suaded the dean of the London to

allow him to go for a year of his

clinical course to

Vienna, which was

then living largely on its pre-first

world war reputa tion as a great medical centre. Extraordinary indeed were the scenes he recounted of those times.

When a boy of 10 Richard Dobbs had a severe nephrotic illness and Sir Frederic Still

was called in. Still asked him what he intended to be when he grew up, and Richard replied, "I want to be a children's doctor like you, sir."

(Their next meeting occurred some 15 years later when Still happened to examine him for the MRCP and was able to recall their earlier

conversation.) Dobb's paediatric training included a spell in the USA at the Children's

Hospital, St Louis, and a first assistantship at

University College Hospital before he was

appointed to the three hospitals at which he was to work for the next 30 years?the London

Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for

Children, Hackney, and Southend General

Hospital. At "the Queen's" the building of the

Hay ward block?which opened in 1972? owed much to his leadership at that time.

For 15 years Richard Dobbs was editor of Archives of Disease in Childhood during a

period when the journal was actively expanding in size and scope. He was president of the

British Paediatric Association in 1970. In middle-age Richard took up sailing and,

despite minimal experience, sailed his 45 ft Natasha in ocean races. In one notable voyage he carried a crew of paediatricians to Copen hagen to attend the International Congress of Paediatrics. Largely dispensing with the bothersome mechanics of formal navigation

methods, he was surprisingly adept at finding his way about the sea, apparently relying on

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