OBITUARIES For the full versions of articles in this section see bmj.com James Mourilyan Tanner Paediatrician who formulated scales for child growth and development Jim Tanner, former professor of child growth Britain in the 1940 Olympic games, which were Whitehouse retired 30 years later. Towards the and development at Great Ormond Street Hos- cancelled because of the war. end of the seven years he spent there, Sir Alan pital, invented the eponymous scale that meas- In 1940 he won a Rockefeller Foundation schol- Montcrieff of Great Ormond Street set up a birth ures growth and development in childhood and arship to Pennsylvania University in a scheme to to maturity study that included psychological a dolescence. His broad academic interests were help 30 UK medical students finish their studies development. In 1956 he joined Montcrieff and where growth, education, health, government pol- away from the stresses of war. Here he did his first resumed clinical work by establishing a growth icy, and socioeconomic theory overlap. His charts research study, constructing standards for normal disorder clinic. He was appointed professor in adorn the walls of general practices and school cardiac output with a ballistocardiogram, using 1966 and remained there for years after his nomi- health clinics around the world. Similarly, he for- his fellow students as guinea pigs. He also married nal retirement as emeritus professor in 1985. mulated the stages that define puberty. He was Bernice Alture, a student at Philadelphia women’s He was among the first to use human growth among the first to treat growth retarded children medical college. hormone clinically and to select the small number with human growth hormone, and he wrote influ- He qualified in 1944, did a nine month intern- of UK children to be treated with human growth ential and widely cited books on growth. “Over ship at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, and hormone from cadavers. After some patients a career that spanned half a century Dr T anner returned to Britain, where he did two years’ army around the world died from an infectious contami- helped bring the study of service in the wartime nant in 1985 he stopped the treatment, resuming human growth into the Maudsley Hospital at Mill it in the 1990s when genetically engineered hor- era of modern biology,” Hill and a returned pris- mone became available. said the New York Times in oner of war rehabilitation 2005 (“With his bells and unit in Kent. International honours curves, human growth In 1946 he took a jun- In 1977 Tanner cofounded the International science grew up,” www. ior job as demonstrator Association for Human Auxology, for the study of nytimes.com, 1 Mar 2005). in Oxford University’s human growth. He held visiting professorships at Before Tanner, child anatomy department Harvard and Texas, wrote classic books including growth charts were of a under the legendary A History of the Study of Human Growth (1951) and “one size fits all” nature. biologist Professor Sir Foetus Into Man: Physical Growth From Concep- Tanner’s charts, made Wilfred le Gros Clark. He tion to Maturity. He received many international with colleagues at the taught an undergradu- h onours, and published more than 100 papers. JONATHANPLAYER/THE NEWYORKTIMES/REDUX/EYEVINE Institute of Child Health ate course on children’s He was a tall, handsome, and highbrow man and Hospital for Sick Paediatricians and school health growth, probably the first with many cultural interests. He was, said Pro- Children, Great Ormond clinics can now chart a child’s in Br itain. At the end of his fessor Barker, “wonderful and under-recognised Street, took account of growth in relation to the average, two year appointment he and the basis of our knowledge of growth is due the variations in a child’s and see how growth lags and spurts was approached by the to him.” Colleagues from around the world held speed of growth. They Ministry of Health with a festschrift in his honour on his 75th birthday in allow paediatricians and school health clinics to funds to start a study on child development, based 1995. When he was 80 he decided to retire, citing chart a child’s growth in relation to the average, on the occupants of an orphanage in Harpenden, the fact that opera singers retire when they still and see how growth lags and spurts. H ertfordshire. The study had been initiated to have an audience and ignore the public protests. Jim was born into an army family and was a observe the effects of malnutrition on growth. In retirement he converted an old stable in Devon boarder at Marlborough college, spending holidays Under Tanner it evolved into a long term study, into a home and made a garden out of a swamp. with his family in China and Egypt. He studied engi- with the same subjects being weighed, measured, He sang with choral societies, played golf, and neering and modern languages intending an army and photographed. He charted puberty by meas- visited galleries and museums. career, but when his soldier-brother was killed at uring genital size and pubic hair quantity from Bernice became a leading figure in general prac- the start of the war he decided on me dicine. photo graphs. Professor David Barker of South- tice. She died in 1991 and a year later he married ampton University said, “He deserved fame, par- Gunilla Lindgren, a Swedish educationalist whose Olympic games ticularly for his studies of puberty. He should have doctoral degree he had examined some years ear- Short of money and unable to afford Oxford or been made a fellow of the Royal Society.” lier. He leaves a daughter by Bernice. Cambridge, he won an athletics scholarship to St Based at the Sherrington school of physio- James Tanner, professor of child growth and development Mary’s medical school in London and for this was logy at St Thomas’ Hospital under Professor Sir (b 1929; q 1944 MBBS St Mary’s and MD Pennsylvania; expected to coach the team, as he’d done at school. Henry B arcroft, he recruited as his coworker Reg 1946 DPM, 1953 PhD, 1972 FRCP, 1973 FRCPsch), died He was the fastest British runner in the 110 metre W hitehouse, a former army medical corps war- from prostate cancer and stroke on 11 August 2010. hurdles in 1939 and was expected to represent rant officer. They were close collaborators until Cite this as: BMJ 2010;341:c5374 732 BMJ | 2 OCTOBER 2010 | VOLUME 341 OBITUARIES becoming a partner in a practice in fives while at Cambridge. He leaves a John Anthony Dyde Moseley, Birmingham. He stayed for wife, Anne; three children; and eight 16 years, working in a deprived area, grandchildren. before he returned to Northern Ireland Rachel Gummery to work in rural Cookstown. In 1980 Lucy Carrie he had emergency coronary artery Cite this as: BMJ 2010;341:c5351 bypass grafting and decided to retire. He enjoyed reasonable health until his 91st year, taking pleasure in his Peter Stradling family, golf, and gardening. He leaves Griffith Owen (“Griff”) was senior a wife, May; three children; and four medical officer on troopships in Former clinical director of cardiology grandchildren. the Royal Army Medical Corps. and cardiothoracic surgery, and R Lowry After training posts in London medical director Walsgrave Hospital, Cite this as: BMJ 2010;341:c5354 and Pennsylvania, he returned to Coventry (b 1935; q Cambridge/Guy’s Newcastle, ultimately becoming Hospital, London, 1959; FRCS), reader in medicine and clinical d 23 May 2010. David Vincent Morgan-Jones and academic sub-dean. He was As well as excelling academically, John appointed second secretary of the Anthony Dyde (“Tony”) was a superb Medical Research Council in 1968, Former consultant chest physician and all round ball player, especially in retiring because of ill health in 1982. senior lecturer Royal Postgraduate cricket, hockey, and rugby football. His many other contributions included Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, He won a University Blue for hockey, being on the Executive Council of the London (b 1919; q University College as well as a national trial for hockey. European Science Foundation. His London 1942; MD, FRCP, FRPS), After qualifying Tony started surgical two textbooks on cardiology ran to d 27 July 2010. training in Bristol and Sheffield. Having two editions, and he contributed and After house jobs in London, Peter trained as a cardiothoracic surgeon at had an important role in the Oxford Stradling committed himself to Guy’s, he was appointed consultant Former general practitioner Harrow and Companion to Medicine. He leaves a improving the care of patients with surgeon to Walsgrave Hospital in Ruislip (b 1919; q The London 1942; wife, Ruth, and four children. tuberculosis. While at Willesden Chest 1972. He became clinical director MRCP, BSc, MSc), d 11 August 2010. Walton of Detchant Clinic, he introduced both outpatient and subsequently medical director, David Vincent Morgan-Jones (“Vin”) Cite this as: BMJ 2010;341:c5330 and home artificial pneumothoraces retiring in 1997. He read voraciously trained during the second world to reduce unacceptably long and pursued his love of fishing and golf war, as a student delivering babies waiting lists for sanatoria beds. He until ill health prevailed. He leaves a unsupervised during air raids. After John North Redfern participated in many of the early wife, Shirley; three children; and seven qualifying he took over his father’s randomised controlled trials of grandchildren. practice in a mining community in different chemotherapy treatments Barry Ross South Wales, later moving to London. and regimens. He combined his Cite this as: BMJ 2010;341:c5358 He was one of the first civilian doctors interest in photography with his to use penicillin.