Graham Williams

After house jobs at Orpington, Guys and Lambeth I spent a year as an assistant in a north Shropshire rural practice. This I decided was the career I wished to pursue but began to despair after many months searching for a suitable practice.Eventually I obtained a partnership in Shipston on Stour, Warwickshire on the borders of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire and the northern limit of the Cotswolds. This was a four man rural dispensing practice with a Cottage Hospital just across the road from the practice premises. In the early days the hospital had a maternity unit ,operating theatre, casualty and x-ray facilities in addition to its 35 beds but as the years passed it changed its title to Community Hospital,the beds became mainly geriatric and the operating facilities and maternity unit ceased to exist.
As well as the practice I worked one day a week in the Orthopaedic Dept at Warwick and developed an interest in Sports Medicine. I also represented my colleagues on the LMC over many years.
I continued to play rugby football for the local club until I was 35 but decided when I couldn’t get out of bed on Sunday morning after a game or even worse not get into the car on Monday it was time to give up! I became President of the club shortly afterwards and remained in post until we played at Twickenham in 2003 in the final of the Junior Vase narrowly losing to Old Alleynians.
My leisure interests turned to mountain walking with some ice and snow climbing where necessary. Initially my travels were confined to the UK and Europe but I made my first of many trips to the Nepal Himalaya in 1975. I acted as the doctor and leader to several high altitude treks. My intention was always to go to Nepal in the Autumn when the weather was invariably good but in 1986 I was persuaded by three professional botanists to accompany them in the Spring to the Kanchanjunga area. The monsoon came early, our tents and equipment were permanently wet , my legs red from where the many leeches had managed to attaché themselves. Never again in the Spring!
With my first wife Brenda I had two daughters Katherine and Rebecca, now aged 49 and 47 and Katherine has given me two grandchildren . This marriage ended in divorce.
I met my second wife Sue in Kathmandu on one of my many trips to Nepal and subsequently we shared many exciting trips including a failed ascent of the Matterhorn and a successful ascent of Kilimanjaro on our honeymoon. Sue is a keen equestrienne and has extended my outside interests into breeding and showing top class Dartmoor ponies. Not to be outdone I acquired a small flock of Hebridean sheep.
We have a son George aged 20 who has inherited our love of sport. After A-levels he had a gap year in Australia. He lived in Sydney, worked for a publishing company which funded his travels around most of Australia and in his free time played league cricket and Aussie Rules football .He is now at Exeter University studying Politics with Spanish,but we have a feeling his heart is still in Australia and he may well return there. Having visited the country we really wouldn’t blame him.

Terence English

It has been most interesting to read the blogs of some of those one knew so many years ago. Rather than reflect on my time at Guy’s and subsequent career, I will give a short account of two of my current interests. (There is a link to Terence's website on the right. Ed)

The first is in my capacity as Patron of the Primary Trauma Care (PTC) Foundation. I became involved in this in 2003 when my friend John Beavis told me he wanted to bring better trauma care to the Tribal Areas of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.I knew the Professor of Surgery in Peshawar, Mohammed Kabir, and through his good offices and connections we were able the next year to take a group of 6 instructors from the UK to teach a 2 day training course in PTC followed by a course for local instructors. The participants of the first course were carefully chosen by Kabir with representatives from the four medical schools in Peshawar, so that before we left we were able to join them in conducting courses in their own medical schools.
The PTC course is based on ATLS principles but adapted for developing countries and teaches doctors and paramedics a system for the immediate care of seriously injured patients. It has been a great success in Pakistan and other developing countries and our latest work has been in Gaza. I have made 3 visits there in the last two years and the courses are now being delivered with great enthusiasm by the instructors we trained. We have made good friends amongst them and have great sympathy for the hardships they are having to endure as a result of the continuing blockade by Israel.

The second interest has been as a Patron of Dignity in Dying and a member of the Steering Group of Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying – HPAD.
Our objective is to change the law so that it becomes legal for terminally ill, mentally competent adults to be given the option of choosing the time and circumstance of their death. Unlike Euthanasia, where the physician administers the lethal drug, Assisted Dying only requires that the patient be provided with a prescription which may or may not be used at a later date by self-administration. It also needs to be distinguished from Assisted Suicide as practised in Switzerland, where the patient may be seriously disabled but not terminally ill. Surveys confirm that the public is very much in favour of a change in the law to legalise assisted dying and that the main opposition comes from religious groups and sections of the medical profession, particularly those in palliative care. HPAD is trying to change this culture and I encourage doctors who support our view to join the campaign by consulting the HPAD website.

Desmond & Ann Hall

At last a belated blog contribution on behalf of Ann and myself.

Too frightened of Malcolm not to do it , but rather dull I
fear in comparison with some of those posted by our
peripatetic and adventurous colleagues.
Memories of Guys many and mostly pleasurable; some
highlights being -
liquid lunches at the Kings Head supervised by landlord
Jim and led (? astray ) by Mike Steyn. One Lawrence
Youlten used to give us racing tips and consume fair
quantities of Russian Stout sometimes with interesting
results, though I see that it is not mentioned in his
blog.
London - Brighton walk with I think Samiran and John
Beales. Ann accompanied as far as Elephant and Castle by
which time she felt that high heels were unsuitable for
the rest of the journey. Still have the green tie, very
narrow and Guinness-stained.
hard afternoon's work at Whitbread brewery on an
"industrial" visit. They started with a promotional film
about "Final Selection" a strong ale which naturally had
to be sampled afterwards, the only time I have seen Ann
rather the worse for wear.
walking down the river towards Tower Bridge past Hays
Wharf and through Bermondsey. What a difference today.

Ann and I were married in November 1961 soon after
qualification, golden wedding rapidly approaching. We both
did our house jobs at King Edward VIIth hospital in
Windsor where the consultants were most friendly. The
other junior staff were mainly from Mary's and didn't let
the work get in the way of having a good time. We are
still in touch with some of them.

I did an obstetric job at Old Windsor, one of Queen
Victoria's old workhouses and now the site of an up-market
housing development. Highlight here was meeting David
French's first cousin doing paediatrics and another man
who knew how to enjoy himself. We remained in contact
until his death last year.

After that I joined Ann's father in practice in Gerrards
Cross / Chalfont St Peter. Ann took some time off to have
three children but returned to work when her father
retired in 1968. We were then in practice on our own for
three years which was very rewarding financially but hard
especially covering the nights and weekends. In 1972 we
merged with the other local practice to form a 6 man
partnership. Initially we all practised from our own homes
but later moved to the converted house of one of the other
partners, very small and pokey with portacabins, and then
to a purpose built large surgery opposite Chalfont
Hospital, a very active "cottage" hospital in those days but now
sadly not so well used.

Ann's special interests in practice were in surgery in
which she did several clinical assistantships and
geriatrics and mine dermatology and ophthalmology.
We did our stint as secretary and President of the
Chiltern Medical Society which like many such societies
has now fallen on hard times.
Ann retired about ten years ago and I was part time for
four years and then did locums for another three; might
have gone on longer had it not been for struggle in
mastering different computer systems in different
surgeries.

Like most people we find retirement very busy! We had
three children. The first was a Guys trained doctor who
worked for Cyril Chantler and is now an oncologist at
Mount Vernon. She and her Australian psychiatrist husband
share a house with us and three grandchildren in
Beaconsfield. The second is a rector in rural Suffolk with
five churches to control and the third an ecologist with
Ove Arup who knows a lot about planning law and is good at
arguing (like his mother!). There are seven much loved
grandchildren the eldest of whom has just left school and
is learning to drive causing trauma to my nervous system
and even worse to the bodywork of my 10 year old Honda.

Ann is very involved with cultural pursuits especially
painting. She takes three painting classes a week which
means she is experienced in all media though her favourite
would be portraits in oils. She sings in the church choir
and does a lot of gardening.
I also am involved in the gardening though only mowing and
labouring having fortunately been ordered off the flower
beds many years ago after digging up some prize specimen
as a weed. My lifelong interest in golf continues and if I
don't get at least two games a week withdrawal symptoms
begin to kick in.
Many lifelong friendships have been formed on the golf
course and I have played in 30 countries; will save
further details to bore you all with next week. I also
took up picture framing to complement Ann's efforts and
that is much enjoyed.

We have travelled a fair amount over the years, highlights
perhaps being Argentina and the Cape, wonderful for winter
sun. As age advances it becomes rather nice just to load
up the car with golf clubs, painting equipment and a
suitcase of pills, some to be eaten and some which "might
come in handy" and keep to the UK. We have had two
especially splendid trips to the North of Scotland and the
Outer Hebrides, still the most beautiful place in the
world, pity about the rain. West of Ireland also highly
recommended but slightly spoilt in parts by haphazard or
non-existent planning laws.

We are very much looking forward to seeing everyone next
week

Robert Sells

I’m really disappointed not to be at the reunion, and I’m sure it will be enjoyable and moving. Like Ann Chamberlain, I’m a bit of an interloper, having sneaked into the ’61 cadre with an unexpected success in a pre-emptive attempt at the Conjoint.

From the start at Guy’s I had much less interest in medicine than in music. There were some very good performers then: John Winter, Tom Sherwood, and (the late) Mike French. The Chapel was a good auditorium, and we did several oratorios in Southwark Cathedral and The Chapter-House. The artist Mel Dean drew me from behind (my best aspect), conducting GHMC in The Creation.

After qualifying I was Butterfield’s HP. The 1962 Consultants’ Dinner was memorable: David Barker and I were editors of the Guy’s Gazette, and he had become cynical about the ethics of private practice at Guy’s. As President, I asked him to reply to the Guy’s toast on behalf of the Residents. Butterfield, plainly concerned that David might ruin his career with an immoderate speech, sent a note: “Barker, be careful”. The note was sent back: “Butterfield, f*** off!” David’s speech was sharply critical, but did him no material harm. The other thing that happened that night, after the consultants left, was a spectacular drunken riot causing the near-destruction of the College. To raise the £1,500 repair bill, we organised the first Ball at the newly-opened Hilton Hotel. Such extraordinary events illustrate the strange relationship which we had with our mentors and our Institution. I believe our complicity was somehow demanded, in perpetuating the traditions, the inbreeding, the institutionalisation of our alma mater. Yet an induced sense of loyalty to Guy’s persists into middle age, atavistic but special.

John B, (despite a dangerous representation of him by me in Tony Bron’s brilliant Residents’ Play) put me into Harry Keen’s lab and I became interested in type 1 diabetics. My first research paper (Diabetologia. 1;1. (1964)) was co-authored with Harry and John Jarrett and involved culturing individual islets of Langerhans. Thus I learned how to operate, and my peers encouraged me to think. Surgery seemed the right path. After training in transplantation with Frank Ellis and Stewart Cameron at Guy’s, Roy Calne at Cambridge and Francis Moore at Harvard, I was appointed to set up the Mersey Regional Transplant Unit in 1971.

Success came gradually in a field where the early results were so dire. Diabetics in particular have a higher risk of death due to coronary thrombosis and postural hypotension following a kidney graft. In very high-risk, young, diabetics, we turned to simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplants as a way of stabilising the blood sugar during the dangerous post-operative period. Initially ridiculed by the physicians as surgical exhibitionism, this complicated procedure in our hands turned out to be life-saving and life-enhancing in selected patients.

My retired state now allows much more music – I have been conducting the Crosby Symphony Orchestra for 29 years - and have formed a semi-professional madrigal choir in the Vale of Clwyd. I remain interested in bio-ethical aspects of transplantation, but although I was President of the British Transplantation Society, attending meetings to introduce speakers makes me feel like a ghost at the feast.

Life on our small-holding in the Vale is perfect. Paula breeds horses and I raise alpacas.

More about Bill Bunting

To add to Nigll Knight's tributee, (see below), Peter Curtis has sent this:

Bill Bunting and I cemented our friendship as we stood in the queue to be vaccinated in the first few days of medical school, and then had to rush off to the pub to cover up the terribly embarrassing pallor and nausea we were feeling. Bill was from Carlyle I think, had a strange accent and was very clever He had been a mining engineer but fell down a mineshaft and broke his hip. His mining career was finished and his orthopedic surgeon told him to go into medicine. I'm pretty sure he got a scholarship to Guys but his funds were always very tight. Bill was often in pain, because of non-union or some residual infection. He never complained. He was very tough. He met Sheila, his first wife, on one of his admissions to casualty where she, a policewoman, had suffered a skull fracture in a car chase.

They had very little money and when Mike Steyn and I for some crazy reason decided to drive my recently acquired 1944 Ford Prefect ( regularly repaired by Chris Bird) all the way to Rimini in Italy, Bill and his wife came along for their honeymoon. As a talisman to ward off evil spirits, hopefully attract curious and luscious girls (insane idea!) and scare the foreigners I fixed the wired bones of my skeleton's foot on the radiator . At the Italian frontier the policeman, sneering at our decrepit car, roof rack piled high with luggage, suddenly noticed the skeletal foot.

"What is that" he asked. "My own foot," I replied in French with a straight face, " It was cut off-coupait- in an accident." He hauled me out of the car and for this stupid remark we were kept for over an hour trying to prove we were medical students at Guy's Hospital and legal permitted owners of 2.5 skeletons. In the end Bill dug into his suitcase and found a letter with his name on it from the Medical School Office. In Rimini Mike and I didn't see the honeymooners until it was time to load up the car again and head back.

The other incident I remember about Bill was the sad episode of his room-mate who turned out to be a con artist; someone who looked for students with whom to share a flat or room, study their textbooks and thereby gather knowledge and the profile of a new person. Bill's roommate spent 5 months learning how to be a medical student and then made off with everything Bill possessed.

After graduation our paths diverged and we only kept in Christmas card touch. He was a good man.

David Stevens

When I was a student all I wanted to be was a an Obstetrician, but an SHO job
(in a part of the country that I will not identify!) and a particularly
aggressive set of midwives, soon put paid to that idea. Another factor that led
to me abandoning that career path was that I was pretty hopeless at surgery,
which would not have been that good in a such a specialty.

So - a career as some sort of a physician beckoned. A totally inability to hear
diastolic murmurs narrowed the field a bit and a dislike of the messier bits of
gastroenterology and dermatology narrowed it further. And then, an SHO job in
medicine (in another part of the country that I will also keep secret) with a
general physician who fancied himself as a neurologist changed things for me for
ever. He had a very simple approach to the subject of neurology, indeed he only
seemed to have three diagnoses - if they went unconscious they had epilepsy, if
they trembled it was Parkinson’s and if they couldn’t walk very well it was
Multiple Sclerosis - which all seemed pretty straight forward and which
suggested that this was the specialty for me. Then six months of neurosurgery,
doing the occasional burr hole, and an SHO and Registrar job with Bryan Matthews
in Neurology had me hooked. For those of you who may have heard of him, but who
have forgotten who he was, Bryan was a neurologist in Derby in the 1960s and he
was totally brilliant.

My Senior Registrar job was in Leeds with Hugh Garland - who really was larger
than life and a little bit naughty at times. During my time in Leeds I spent
eighteen months as a Research Fellow in the University Department of Genetics
and did some work on Huntington’s Chorea (as it was called in those days). This
led to an MD and membership of the World Federation of Neurology Research group
on the condition. Eventually I spent eight years as the Secretary-General of
that group - which sounds rather grand, but it wasn’t really. Writing letters,
organising workshops every two years and occasionally attending WFN Research
Committee meetings. Interesting and an opportunity to attend conferences all
over the world - a bit like Roy Weller...

Whilst I was Bryan Matthew’s registrar we collaborated with two American
researchers in the first experiments of transmitting (conventional)
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to chimpanzees, which demonstrated that this was very
much not the degenerative disease that had previously been thought. I was a
co-author of one of the papers describing this experiment. After all of this,
one of the Americans got the Nobel Prize, Bryan Matthews became Professor of
Neurology at Oxford and I got a job ... in Gloucester - ah well.

For 21 years from 1973 I was single handed looking after the neurology for
Gloucestershire and parts of Herefordshire and only in 1994 did I acquire a
colleague. Now there are four of them and they want a fifth... I saw a huge
amount of neurology during the time that I was on my own and loved every minute
of it. I even described a new disease, which some of my ex-registrars (but
nobody else) like to call Stevens’ Disease.

I was very involved with the Association of British Neurologist in the later
years of my career and looked after the finances of the Association and then the
finances of the World Congress of Neurology held in London in 2001. Rather late
in life I discovered a talent I didn’t know I had.

I retired from the NHS on the very last day of the last millennium and over the
years have slowly tailed off the work. Bit by bit I gave up private practice and
then I slowly gave up medico-legal work, so that now all I do is to act as one
of the Trustees on the vCJD Trust set up by the government in the aftermath of
the BSE problem.

My wife Ute and I travel a lot. We have been to the Antarctic twice, the Arctic
once, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and really rather a large number of other
places around the world. The pictures are of Ute watching the old fellow having
a chat with a Gentoo Penguin on the shore of Paradise Harbour on the Antarctic
Peninsula in March 2010.

30 years ago: sent by Simon Brook

David Turner

Just managed to squeeze into the ’61 Reunion by dint of having qualified early with the Conjoint exam in November 1961. I was impatient to get on with my career, however a very difficult first marriage threw a spanner in the works. My original plan was to train in General Surgery, but as my first wife was very good at producing children, yet incapable of caring for them (due to illness rather than wanton neglect), I found my domestic commitments were very demanding.

I therefore opted for an Academic career in Morbid Anatomy and Diagnostic Histopathology and Roy Weller, who was already in the department of Pathology at Guy’s helped to facilitate my appointment there. Despite the “Morbid” title it proved to be a very happy department, mainly because Prof Colin Adams managed it with a very light touch; (he did not come in very often).

After a few months Roy suggested that we should take an interest in the renal biopsy material that was being submitted to the department by Stewart Cameron and the Renal unit (which was soon to attract Chisolm Ogg). We used light, electron and immunofluorescence microscopy initially and combined the anatomical and immunological data together with clinical data from Stewart Cameron and his team to study the natural history of the different patterns of glomerular disease. A large number of publications were prepared under joint authorship but with Stewart being the major driving force.

In 1976 I was lucky enough to be appointed as “Rapporteur” (glorified secretary) to the International WHO Committee for Classification and Nomenclature of Renal Diseases. This appointment involved co-operating in a series of international studies and attending lots of meetings in nice places and ultimately co-authoring several books on various aspects of renal pathology.

By 1981 I had obtained a divorce from my first wife. I decided I needed a break from the academic scene and accepted a post as an NHS Pathologist in Taunton and was delighted to re-new acquaintance with both Bill Bunting and Nigel Knight who were well established there. I was also fortunate to persuade Juliet Heaton, who had originally helped me a great deal with the renal work at Guy’s and had been appointed Senior Lecturer, to accompany me. I even managed to persuade her to marry me but she insisted on maintaining a degree of independence by keeping her maiden name. When Juliet and I arrived at Musgrove Park Hospital the department was very run down, as the previous incumbent had lost interest in his work and taken to drink. The department needed a complete re-vamp so we set to. I was delighted to discover that both Nigel Knight and Bill Bunting were well established Consultants there.

After about nine months things were running very smoothly and I realised I would need a bigger challenge. I applied for the chair of Pathology in Nottingham which was soon to become vacant. “Oh beware what you wish for!” It proved to be a bit of a poisoned chalice. The department was supposed to be an integrated NHS and University department but was virtually in anarchy. Fortunately by dint much hard work and sheer determination the department was gradually turned round and became an excellent training centre producing the current President of the Royal College of Pathology, Peter Furness, the present Dean of Nottingham Medical School and Professor of Neuropathology, Jim Lowe and Professor Ian Ellis an International Expert in Breast Disease and many other highly competent Pathologists.

Although I enjoyed the basic work of running the department, I found the University and Hospital politics created a lot of stress. Others noted that my hair turned white during this period and I became aware that my blood pressure reached astronomical levels on occasion. I therefore decided to take up marathon running as a “gentle pastime”. Once I had a reasonable level of training I could run on auto-pilot and achieve an almost transcendental state of relaxation. I managed to complete the London Marathon in less than 3hrs and ran another dozen or so in various countries. The most enjoyable was in France near Bordeaux where there were 18 wine tasting points and a long row of ambulances waiting at the finish for any runners who had “too much blood in their alcohol stream”!

After 15yrs in Nottingham, by which time the department was going well and had doubled in size, I decided to take early retirement. I was not sure what I was going to do in retirement but soon found I was being asked to provide support for pathology departments in difficulty in the West Country where Juliet and I had already bought an old thatched farmhouse “in need of restoration” in a remote Devon valley.

It was in the middle of this phase that I decided to take up flying a small plane. I managed to get my private pilot’s licence quite quickly but was still doing what I thought were some rather untidy landings which surprisingly did not seem to deter passengers. Juliet who is not keen on flying came up with me on three occasions but on the last of these we encountered some quite severe turbulence. After that she flatly refused to go in “that thing” ever again! I did however fly quite extensively in England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In the course of these adventures I did do quite a lot of flying on instruments when visibility was poor or worse. This was much more demanding than visual flying but was a challenge that I was keen to battle with.

Virtually full retirement in the last 3 years includes managing and maintaining a small estate which takes up most of my time. Juliet and I have six children between us and eleven grandchildren with one more on the way, so we are often involved with one or other of them. Juliet and I still share many common interests and try to help each other get the best out of retirement. I am still hoping to run at least one more marathon before I hang up my trainers! My plane was destroyed in an accident while it was parked up at the local airfield in May this year. Oddly enough I had thought of selling it soon anyway as the cost of fuel is getting so expensive. Otherwise, reading and frequent visits to the Theatre Royal in Bath are important.

Looking forward to September 9th.

Roy Weller

After my House jobs at Guys, I embarked on a career in Neuropathology, first at Guys, then in New York. After another brief spell at Guys and the Institute of Psychiatry, I was appointed to a post in the new Southampton University School of Medicine. The job was a fascinating mixture of Clinical Neuropathology, research, teaching and management. It was so fascinating that I remained in Southampton until I retired, as did David Barker and John Carruth. I managed to fulfil my quota of conferences in exotic places each year, thus justifying the collective noun of an “absence” of Professors. My research passed through a number of phases but for the last decade I have concentrated upon Alzheimer’s disease as an insurance policy. I am still dovetailing research with retirement activities and discovering the beauties of my home town of Winchester with its surrounding countryside. Holidays are spent mainly in West Wales with my wife, Francine, our daughter and two of our four grandchildren. My Welsh is progressing; I can almost say Cardiff in Welsh but not to the satisfaction of my son-in-law. The accompanying photograph was taken this summer at the top of the Campanile in Florence with the Duomo in the background. I submitted it just to prove that I can still climb the 80 metres and 400 steps.

Simon Brook

Simon has approved my using this recent letter to Malcolm as his blog contribution:

Dear Malcolm,



Thank you so much for all your concern and good wishes. I am pleased to be able to respond myself and say that I am recovering well. We heard this week that my latest CAT scan shows my pancreas is stable and now hopefully laparascopic cholecystectomy will be performed on September 8th, which sadly concludes that I cannot attend our reunion.



Pam and I are sorry to miss this and we would certainly like you to send our very best wishes to all our old friends.



I have attached a picture of my most treasured Guy's possession. This tapestry(48 by 45 cm) was needleworked by my mother and completed after an attack of ophthalmic herpes!

Showing the Guy's motto it reminds me that an old Guy's man has encouraged me to give my research materials to the Gordon Museum. These concern the paintings of Chinese patients and the 'Introduction of Western Medicine to China'. With our advancing years and not knowing what is going to happen next (as I have just learned), I would encourage all old Guys to consider what they could donate, particularly as we are always being asked to support the next generation!



Kindest regards

Simon

Anne Kenshole

Me and my lab assistant

After house jobs at Guys with Rex Lawrie and Dr. Hardwick (the honorific still seems
appropriate in his case), I did obstetrics in Nottingham where I had my first exposure to diabetes and pregnancy. This ultimately led to a life-long interest in the management of medical diseases in pregnancy though at that time, the few brave women with “juvenile diabetes” who embarked on a pregnancy were admitted at 28 weeks and put on bed rest until they delivered a premature sickly baby. Neonatal resuscitation was limited to Brandy-infused midwives' breaths. Only 50% of the infants survived.

This was followed by a great year in Plymouth, mainly spent sailing and hiking on Dartmoor after which I decided to get some research experience by doing a BTC (Been To Canada). So, I came to Toronto to work in Intermediary Metabolism and 6 months later married Nick, the lab Chief. We have 2 children, one a teacher and one “in computers”, neither of whom ever had the slightest interest in doing medicine. I retired from the University of Toronto in 2010 as Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology but not being enamoured of the “R” state. I continue to see patients 3 days a week, do peer assessments on endocrinologists and have developed an interest in medico-legal issues. We love to travel – I’ve been to Tibet twice – or closer to home, good burgundies and opera.

Adi Gasdar holds a Distinguished Chair in Molecular Oncology research at Southwestern Medical School in the U.S. and we visited Penny Cave-Smith in San Diego a while ago where she was an anesthetist and is now into baroque music.

Other near contemporaries in Ontario include Chisholm Ogg who recently retired after a stellar career in nephrology at McMaster University. John Wonham is a surgeon in Windsor. Bernard Wolfe is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Western Ontario. He has endowed a research fellowship in health neuroscience at Cambridge.

Christopher Mallinson

I spent 8 years at Greenwich District Hosp and published quite a bit with Stephen Bloom on gut hormones.The two papers that stick out and are still cited were the first description of the clinical presentation of that common condition The Glucagonoma.The other was the first controlled trial of chemo vs nothing in Panc Canc.To our amazement,in which we were not alone,the regimen produced 3 to 4 months survival benefit in 40% of patients and the trial opened the way to a more positive and now slightly more effective approach to inoperable PC.But I think, myself,should the need arise, that I would stock up on opiates and good Burgundy.
I then went to Lewisham,because I could not stand two colleagues at GDH ,who resisted many attempts thereafter by the 3 wise men to dislodge them. Lewisham was full of energy and fun. Michael Price,Robin Stott and Gordon Jackson for starters.
A lot of work in Fund Raising for a new Endoscopy Unit,and a major commitment to Communication in Health Care,nationally and internationally.
Also Chair of the Gastro Section of the UEMS,intended to harmonize training and accreditation in EEC postgrads.
Evidence of my skills as a Chair and Controller of my own inclinations : A long Saturday in Cork on the 50th Anniversary of VE Day with 30 EEC delegates.The former Axis Powers being well represented and behaving as dysfunctionally as ever AND NOBODY MENTIONED THE WAR.
Last pubn :the first time communication and patient centred techniques have appeared in an English Language Medicine Text book was in my Chapter,Chap one, what else,of the last three editions of Kumar and Clark.

My two favourite anecdotes come from the first round and second outpatients as a Consultant.First I spotted that THE most unstable diabetic ever was injecting her insulin into her tea.The second was the local postmaster telling me about his emaciated mother,subsequently found to have ileal TB,in Peter Sellars Indian Dialect "Womitting ,womitting,womitting. Arl the day womitting.Ven womit stopping, then, VIND"

Now I spend as much time in the old wreck of a Burgundy farmhouse we bought 25 years ago.Gardening,a lot of landscape painting,and the joys of gastronomy.
I am also writing a children's book. About VIND.
I have left out the Middle East and Harley Street Saga.

The late Graham Fraser

Nigel Knight writes:

Many of you will remember Graham who joined our clinical year from Oxford. He was Consultant ENT Surgeon at UCH/Middlesex. His great interest was the treatment of the profoundly deaf by cochlear implants. Despite good results in Australia and USA, the NHS would not help with this initially and there was much scepticism from a number of influential consultants. Graham approached the Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust which funded a pilot implant project at UCH. The success of this enabled Graham to convince the then Health Minister (David Mellor) and a very successful national programme was set up. Many deafened people owe Graham an immense debt.

His untimely death in 1994 at the age of 57 cut short much promising research and development work designed to improve the quality of life of those disabled by profound deafness. In recognition of his great achievements and the need for his work to continue, his widow Pat, his friends and colleagues set up a Foundation in his memory (www.grahamfraserfoundation.org.uk). (Click on link at right.) This has endowed an annual lecture at the RSM by distinguished clinicians and researchers worldwide and, when funds permitted, enabled a travelling Fellow to spend six months in Professor Gibson’s unit in Sydney.

Nigel Knight

Having done only bits of anatomy, physiology and pathology during my dental studies, my appetite was whetted to do the lot. So I enrolled on a medical course. Many happy memories of student days include numerous (liquid) lunches at the King’s Head with Lawrence Youlten and John Robertson – served by big Jim who, I thought, always looked so pale and ill. Uncertain what I wanted to do when I started (with only vague notions about maxillo-facial work) I eventually settled for ENT. After pre-reg jobs and a spell in physiology, I went to the ENT hospital in Gray’s Inn Road for six months where I was joined by my great friend, Graham Fraser (a Guy’s contemporary about whom more above). We then went together as registrars to UCH, remaining for two years.

For some time before qualifying I had set my heart on a job in the West Country although unaware then that my distant roots were there. So I did my SR training in Bristol and thence to Somerset. I married and had three children (a girl and two boys) with my first wife who died 12 years ago. Save working briefly in New Zealand, I remained in Somerset for 26 years.

Fishing (mainly on Dartmoor and Exmoor but also in Scotland), golf and painting have helped to fill a lot of time before and after retirement. Wendy and I (we married in 2001) live happily in the country, play occasional golf together, walk dogs and travel a bit. I am now in my 80th year. As my energy levels reduce, I spend more time painting watercolours. Profits go mainly to charities. For several years I have done a voluntary class for the old folks in the local British Legion Home. The average age of my pupils borders on 90. Their enthusiasm is boundless. Should I ever reach their age, I should like to think I’ll be painting with the same enthusiasm but I fear not!

The late Bill Bunting

Nigel Knight sent me the following:

Bill was born at Grasmere in the Lake District. Before coming to Guy's he had commenced studies in mining engineering, I believe.
Having sustained an injury to a knee he saw a surgeon at Guy's, (possibly Grant Massie).His injury and its treatment caused him to switch to medicine and fostered an interest in orthopaedics.
After leaving Guy's Bill did his senior registrar training at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital in Exeter which included a year's secondment to Truro. I recall his being especially impressed by one of the Truro surgeons - Robert Robins who had a particular interest in hand surgery - something Bill acquired. He arrived in Taunton in 1971 to take up a Consultant orthopaedic post. He was an excellent surgeon, quickly establishing a reputation for hard work, surgical skill and reliability. His patients always came first. He enjoyed teaching and was greatly appreciated by his junior staff. He was a good speaker- a quality which served him well when pressing the claims of his department in committee.
After retiring from the NHS he was busy for several years with medico-legal work.
Many will recall his sharp mind and quick wit - qualities which he did not lose
He had two adopted sons with his first wife. He and his second wife had two of their own.
Not so very long ago he rang me to say Clive Barrett was staying with him. We all had dinner together.
Bill died of motor neurone disease in 2010. His funeral in Milverton Parish church was very well attended. Apart from his family many old colleagues, supporting staff and former patients came to bid him farewell.

Tales from the Physiology Lab

Nigel Knight sent me this tale:

Professor Hunt was a stickler for punctuality - and much else as well. Having started a practical class promptly at 09.30 the door opened soon after and the latecomer was asked where he'd come from. The answer was New Cross or some such. After a stern ticking off Hunt started the class all over again. This was repeated each time a latecomer arrived from, say, Islington, Lewisham, Hither Green etc. After the class had re-started four or five times, a brown face appeared round the door. Hunt asked him where he'd come from."Pakistan" came the answer. "in that case" said Hunt "you haven't done too badly"

This reminded me of an episode a few years later, by which time Nigel was a demonstrator or junior lecturer in Physiology, living in the bachelor accommodation in Trinity Church Square. For a student to be late was bad enough, (see above), but for a member of staff, it was unthinkable. One morning Nigel overslept, waking in time to realise that he had to be in the Lab for the start of a practical class in about 15 minutes. Dressing rapidly he ran into the street and stopped a passing motorist. "I'm a Guy's doctor, and need to be at the hospital as a matter of urgency", he said. "Jump in sir, I'll run you there", said the startled but helpful driver, and Nigel arrived with seconds to spare, as the motorist drove off thinking he had probably saved someone's life. He had, of course.

On another occasion someone, I cannot remember who, put a live mouse in the box of chalks and covered it with the board duster before one of Professor Hunt’s lectures in the physiology theatre. It provoked huge anticipation for the students assembled for the lecture. Unbeknown to us, Hunt had been waiting to come in by the lower door, had seen exactly what had gone on and sent his technician off to get a piece of chalk. He was in the habit of starting his lectures by writing something on the board – an erudite quotation to stir up the simple minds or just a single word serving as ‘a peg on which we were invited to hang our thoughts’. On this occasion, Hunt played it out with considerable skill. Nothing was written on the board. Several times he approached the box of chalks as if to take one out and the excitement built to fever pitch – but no! – he moved away again and again and continued talking. After ten minutes or so, he took a piece of chalk out of his coat pocket and finally wrote on the board. At this point, Lawrence Youlten shouted out ‘He knows you know!’ Hunt dissolved in laughter and so did we.

Chris Hughes

From pre-reg jobs (61-62) Royal Surrey County via Charing Cross in the Strand to Peterborough Memorial as medical SHO/locum Registrar (63-64) to Kenneth Allanby (excellent consultant)
In Peterborough met Felicity who qualified SRN from The Royal London. By then was SHO for 3 months in Pathology Laboratory at National for Nervous Diseases. Can vouch for excellent culinary reputation of their Doctors mess.

Married 1965 when at New Cross Guys. Felicity was Orthopaedic theatre Staff Nurse. I was Registrar to Kenneth Maclean, Maurice Lessof and Bob Knight.
First son arrived 1967.We reconsidered General Practice. After 6 months Obstetrics at Royal Free joined Eldon Sq Partnership in Reading. “Buying in “ was significant financial responsibility then, virtually impossible now.

Eldon Sq Partnership encapsulates the twentieth century accumulating various extra curricular jobs and coping with workload by limiting NHS lists to 2000.
Eventually had to amalgamate our 3 premises. 1980 to 1984 was lead partner building 2 storey accommodation for 8 partners and 2 trainees.

Admin track record chronologically runs: BMA secretary local branch: GP representative Berkshire HA: Chairman LMC.

1994 part-time retirement for health reasons.
1997 Parathyroidectomy for a benign adenoma and a planned 2 years became 8.
2002 finally retired.
Now fully occupied with golf, gardening and 2 grandsons, who are in New Zealand
7 years ago eldest son emigrated to NZ and is currently NZ director for Van Zanten Lily Bulbs. We have annually visited 2 to 3 months each year for past 7 years.
Have 2 other sons ; an artist; and a florist, his own business: Pot Pourri Flowers Chiswick

Semi retirement enabled me to accept Presidency of Reading Pathological Society 2000-01. Was delighted when Bob Knight addressed a full house on “Keats and his fellow doctors”

1970 bought plot in Copse Mead and built our house. Now very happy to share retirement with Felicity and potter in our well established garden

John Winter

I met Viv Cullum from the Physiotherapy department in the bar after a singing rehearsal at Guy's, but had to ask her to pay for the drinks. We married in 1966.

Being asked to consider radiotherapy, I gave it a six month's trial, then stayed in the discipline for the rest of my working life. A gastroenterologist, whose wife is a member of the Radiotherapists Visiting Society, reckons we are the last true generalists. I followed Tony Waite and John McArthur as consultant and was glad to work in joint clinics with John Hayward, Omar Shaheen and others.

With the amalgamation of London hospitals I was able to work with colleagues from King's and St Thomas', with sessions at the latter.

Colin Keane, heading a newly formed radiotherapy department at Maidstone, asked me to work there part time, with no administrative responsibilities, after I retired from Guy's in 1993. Viv had been appointed Superintendent Physiotherapist in the Forest of Dean, so we moved from Bromley to Coleford and I commuted from Gloucester to Kent for seven years until we both retired in 2000.

We have bought a little place in south Brittany, quarter of an hour from the sea, and visit family in Bristol, Totnes and Edinburgh. We have six grandchildren.

Anne Chamberlain

As I did an intercalated degree in Anatomy I am a fraud having qualified in 1962.However Malcolm said ‘ OK ,Come’ so I look forward to seeing many of you .
My memories of Guy’s are incomplete but include the anxiety before anatomy vivas every 2 weeks and the eerie feel of the Dissecting Room in the moonlight .
I remember volunteering (?) for Jack Hunt’s experiments. We swallowed a naso-gastric tube so he could measure gastric acid through the menstrual cycle and were rewarded with 2/6 d which I thought I could save –but I was so hungry I spent it in the Spit.
I was one of Butterfield’s house physicians(doing resident path throughout the night as Sir Russell Brock operated and the patients lost gallons of blood) .We then tried to research clotting in the little lab beside William Gull ward - quaint when I view the complexities of securing research grants now .
After one firm party at our flat in Tooting Bec when Bo stubbed his cigarette in the mustard on his blind side ,David Lintott turned up to help me clear up .I appreciated such unusual behaviour and we married in 1963 and had many happy years and 3 boys together till he died in 1999.He was a superb , innovative interventional radiologist (gastro-intestinal ) at the General Infirmary at Leeds .We chose Leeds because it was near the mountains(for him ) and gave me 25 happy, productive years working with the Rheumatologist, Verna Wright.
The only one in this small team also trained in Rehabilitation Medicine , I became the Consultant in this. There was no-one else in Yorkshire to rehabilitate the younger people with strokes ,head injury or MS .We started a Rehabilitation Unit, gradually adding community rehab teams so that now (I can say it as I am retired ) we have one of the most comprehensive services in the country and one of the most well-known academic depts. The endowment of the Charterhouse Chair into the University of Leeds enabled me to start an academic dept researching disability and rehabilitation.

Walter (Wally) Landers

I have many memories of my years at Guy's.
The foremost, of course,was meeting a Guy's nurse, Janet, who is now my wife of 50 years and who has presented me with three wonderful children. We are now proud grandparents of six grandchildren---- all healthy & well.
Memories associated with people likely to be at the reunion include:
-- helping Malcolm Blacklee get home after 2nd M.B. An exciting trip!!
-- setting up a goal for Malcolm " Curly" Forsythe ( I swear he could not miss it!) in the United Hospital Cup Final (football) We lost 2-1, much to the dismay of our 3-4 supporters, one of whom was Prof.Hazelwood.
--visiting Thatchings after finals & being driven around in a Rolls Royce. I can't remember whose it was now but I know it wasn"t mine.
--my stay in the Old Hostel under the care of dear old Sophie & C,E,O Bill Hanwell
After a great pre-registration year at Southend General Hospital with Bill Hanwell, Chris Bird, Malcolm Blacklee & John Barker I obtained a Senior House Officer post in Orthopaedics & Casualty at Kingston Hospital under Mr, Freebody--- himself a Guy's man. A year later I went into General Practice in the Midlands before leaving for Canada in 1966, supposedly for one year to begin specialising.
Emigration strongly resembled my present golf game------ a series of disasters interrupted by the occasional miracle!! This would be a whole story in itself.
Following my year at the Hamilton Civic Hospitals I needed to find work in order to bring my family home, so I went into a Rural Practice--- initially is was Private Practice but later it was Nationalized.
Country Practice involved all areas of medicine--- delivering babies,Emergency Room Work, Assisting at Surgery & hospital work. I was also a Coroner. All very satisfying & enough stories to write a book.
(e,g. being called out to treat a sick racehorse). I retired 32 years later.
I have sung in the Canadian Orpheus Male Voice Choir & once in Opera. I don't do that anymore.
I play golf regularly. I have resumed violin lessons ( I played as a boy). I have a Russian maestro to teach me--- he is half my size so we get on well.
The rest of the time I can do what I want -- I just have to check with Janet to see if that's what I really want,
After all, she is a Nurse.