William Louis Murray Bigby

Former consultant anaesthetist Southampton (b Wallington 1906; q Guy's 1928; FFARCS; MBE), d 16 February 1998. Starting his career as a general practitioner, he played a major part in the civil defence of Southampton, for which he was awarded the MBE. After the war he returned to practice but soon trained in anaesthetics and became a consultant. He was very much involved in the St John Ambulance Association, serving for almost 50 years as a lecturer and examiner and also as area commissioner. He also gave his time to the administration of local hospitals and to the local branch of the Missions to Seamen. Predeceased by his wife, Marian, he leaves a son and daughter; four grandchildren; and two great grandchildren.

James Aeneas Mackenzie Broadfoot

General practitioner Port Glasgow 1948-82 (b Dingwall 1918; q Glasgow 1943), died of pneumonia and septicaemia on 23 October 1997. He landed with the Canadian Beach Group on D Day, and served as medical officer to the 1st battalion of the Royal Hampshire Regiment. At the end of the war he was posted as field officer in Addis Ababa. In Port Glasgow he was medical officer to Lithgow Shipyards and Broadfield Hospital, serving also as a committee member of the Glasgow Association for the Relief of Incurables until his death. A keen traveller, he had an encyclopaedic knowledge of his own country. Predeceased by his wife, Ruth, he leaves three children and nine grandchildren.

Dorothy Frances Egan

Honorary consultant paediatrician Guy's Hospital 1966-82 (b 1901; q Charing Cross 1925; DPH, FFCM), d 17 January 1998. Having obtained the DPH in 1927, she gained wide experience in school health and maternity and infant welfare work. Dorothy was widely influential in the development of community child health, becoming a principal medical officer in the medical department of the Greater London Council and having her distinction recognised by election as president of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. “Retirement” at 65 was followed by the most professionally productive period of her life. She joined Ronnie MacKeith and Mary Sheridan at Guy's and became part of the group that taught and practised developmental paediatrics and powerfully influenced the services for disabled children and their families in Britain and internationally. Dorothy's contribution was to refine developmental assessment into a clinically reliable tool and to teach the subject brilliantly to thousands of doctors until her early 90s. For paediatric neurologists it was a revelation how much of the neurological examination could be performed by such an apparently simple technique. She researched and standardised the “bus puzzle test,” and of her many writings her book Developmental Examination of Infants and Preschool Children will remain the classic text on the subject. She showed young paediatricians how to make a relationship with young children and hence to perform assessments quickly and efficiently using simple play materials in a structured fashion. This was a quiet revolution in paediatrics and one we must preserve. Predeceased by her husband and a son, she leaves a daughter (a neurodevelopmental paediatrician); four grandchildren; and five great grandchildren.

A thanksgiving service will be held in the chapel of Guy's Hospital on Wednesday 20 May at 3 pm, and in memoriam donations may be sent to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in the name of Dorothy Egan.

Kamel (“Kam”) Hamadah

Former physician in psychological medicine St Thomas's Hospital London (b Cairo 1929; q Cairo 1952, St Thomas's 1967; DPM, FRCPsych), died of metastases from oesophageal carcinoma on 10 February 1998. He came from a large family of lawyers and was the only member to become a doctor, surprising the family by becoming a psychiatrist. He came to the Maudsley Hospital on a scholarship, requalifying and becoming a consultant at Tooting Bec and later St Thomas's Hospital. His early work on cyclic AMP in depression may hold the key to understanding the efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy. He was a shrewd clinician, becoming an assessor both to the health committee of the General Medical Council and to the General Dental Council. He held many positions on the Royal College of Psychiatrists, both centrally and regionally, and was examiner and examinations organiser for the college as well as a member of the Mental Health Act Commission. He spent two winters in Egypt, even though he had to take his chemotherapy there and administer it to himself. He leaves a wife, Brenda.

Norman Dennis Woodrow

General practitioner Esher 1959-89 (b Wimbledon 1921; q St George's 1955), died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on 25 September 1997. He was a keen scout and ballroom dancer, volunteering for the Royal Air Force and spending most of his time as permanent medical staff member on troop ships. After the war he recommenced his studies, rowed for Chelsea Polytechnic, and two years after qualification took over a singlehanded general practice. He was a man full of enthusiasm and vigour, sailing in the Javelin dinghy national championships with his elder son and winning the Veteran's Cup at Bisley as a result of taking up shooting with his younger son. Predeceased by his first wife, Brenda, he married Molly and with her danced his way back to gold medal standard and travelled the globe as well as finding time to become a keen gardener. He leaves Molly; two sons; and two grandchildren.