Obituaries

Curate with a love of travelling and nature

Anthony Clough has died at the age of 83. He had a rich and varied life in which his love of the church and nature took him across the world.

After attending Sherborne School, Anthony undertook National Service with the Northamptonshire Regiment, and was stationed for a year in Hong Kong. He then returned to the UK, graduating from King’s in Theology, Philosophy and Ethics in 1960. He was ordained into the Anglican Church of England and served as curate in the Derbyshire parish of Melbourne from 1961–64, where he then took the National Certificate of Agriculture at the Derbyshire Farm Institute.  Combining both interests, he then moved to India, where he spent four years as a priest in the Anglican Church of India in Madhya Pradesh and established a diocesan farm.

In 1969, Anthony’s life took a different turn. He moved to Africa, working first for OK Bazaars in Johannesburg, one of the oldest retail shops in South Africa, and then as a teacher of horticulture at Salesian High School, Manzini, Swaziland. After a short spell in Germany, he returned to South Africa and was to spend the rest of his life in the horticulture industry, working again for OK Bazaars in Randburg, where he managed their gardening department, and then for various nurseries in management and buying roles.

Anthony retired in 1992, but continued to work in landscaping and garden design, such was his love of the natural world. He was a skilled pen and ink and watercolour artist and enjoyed both the natural wonders and history of South Africa, where he remained for the rest of his life.

He is survived by his widow Renée, and by Martin Fröhlich, his son by Irmgard, his late first wife.

Doctor with a lifelong devotion to Guy’s Hospital

Dr David Tong, doctor and consultant at Guy’s Hospital, has died.

David qualified as a doctor at Guy’s Hospital Medical School in 1966. His career at the hospital, where he later became a consultant radiotherapist and oncologist, spanned 40 years, before ill health and a Parkinson’s diagnosis led to his early retirement.

David was committed to Guy’s throughout his life. Aside from his devotion to and career in medicine, he was a member of Guy’s rugby and athletics teams as a student. Later, as a gifted poet, he was a member of the hospital’s Keats Society, an activity he enjoyed up until the end of his life. He met his wife, Beryl, a nurse, at Guy’s.

David continued to live his life to the full with dignity and courage, despite the progression of his Parkinson’s condition over 24 years.

Writer, actor and one-man travelling theatre company takes a bow

Dr Geoffrey Hales, literature and theatre lover and former editor of the college newspaper King’s News, has died, aged 72.

As a young child, Geoff had displayed a passion for reading and literature, encouraged initially by his mother. At school, and later at King’s, key mentors played an important part in nurturing his innate interest and abilities. At the age of seven, he also enjoyed an early taste of performing in public through his step-grandfather, who staged variety shows for charity at the old Doric Cinema in Newmarket.

Geoff studied English and followed this with a PhD on the literary influences on George Orwell’s novels, under the aegis of Leonée Ormond, Professor of Victorian Studies at King’s. He also found time to serve as a very creative editor of King’s News. He took a lively part, as well, in several productions staged by the English department, including The Winter’s Tale, directed by Shakespeare expert Richard Proudfoot, with the assistance of fellow lecturer Janet Cowan.

Subsequently, while working at the Association of Commonwealth Universities as an editor, Geoff spotted a job in Tonga in the South Pacific, teaching English Literature at the ‘Atenisi University. He had two spells there, in 1975–6 and 1984, between which he taught English with Drama at Davies’ School of English in Cambridge. In spite of studying at King’s during the same period as his future wife Sally (Maths & Physics, 1967–70), their paths did not cross until they met at the ACU; they were married in the Chapel at King’s in 1977.

In 1985, Geoff branched out and set up his travelling theatre, writing and performing his own one-man plays on Victorian and Edwardian luminaries such as Dickens, Kipling, Stephenson, Lear, Darwin and PG Wodehouse. The ‘Geoff Hales Travelling Theatre’ performed across the UK, as well as touring to Switzerland, Germany, Holland, the Czech Republic and Sweden. He was still very much active in writing and performing to the end.

Geoff’s other great passion was cricket. In 1980, he founded a team in Cambridge called ‘The Remnants’, where he was club secretary and wicket-keeper for 30 years. The team still thrives and has played 1,064 matches to date. In recent years, he became a fully qualified umpire, and was a scorer with Cambridge University.

[With thanks to Sally Hales and Rob King for this obituary. Photo courtesy Faruk Kara Photography].

Brilliant immunologist who revealed the crucial role of lymphocytes

Sir James Gowans, who has died aged 95, was a pioneer of immunology. His early research demonstrated that small lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, play a central part in the body’s immune system.

James qualified in Medicine from King’s College Hospital in 1947. In 1948, he studied Physiology at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he undertook a doctorate at the William Dunn School of Pathology under Howard Florey. There, he investigated the immune system, and, more specifically, the role of small lymphocytes.

The presence of lymphocytes in inflammatory reactions in diseases such as tuberculosis was widely documented at the time, but the role of the small lymphocyte, a cell with a short lifespan, was not understood.

James’s vital contribution was to show that some of the small lymphocytes, taken from the thoracic ducts of rats, enjoyed surprising longevity – up to 15 years – and had the capacity to leave the blood, cross tissues, and circulate via the lymph nodes back to the blood, a process known as lymphocyte recirculation.

To determine the purpose of these cells, James infected a group of rats with a tetanus antigen, stimulating them to build an immunity against the disease. He then transplanted some of their lymphocytes to rats in an unexposed group. When these rats were then introduced to the tetanus antigen, they responded with an outpouring of antibodies, as if they had previously been immunised to a disease they had never had. James concluded that lymphocytes are effective stores for the body’s memory of antigens that have attacked it.

James’s work on lymphocytes was recognised with many honours. He was a Royal Society Research Professor (1962–1977) and Secretary of the Medical Research Council (1977–1987). He held numerous honorary doctorates, received the 1980 Wolf Prize in Medicine and was an Associate of the US Academy of Sciences. He was also Secretary General of the Human Frontier Science Program, which funds basic life sciences research. He was knighted in 1982.

Rector and restorer of the famous London landmark, St Mary le Strand Church

The Revd Edward Thompson has died, aged 94. He was the rector of the landmark church that will be familiar to many King’s alumni – St Mary le Strand with St Clement Danes.

Edward studied Theology at King’s as an evening scholar, whilst working for the Board of Trade, soon after the Second World War. He was accepted for ordination training at King’s in 1950 and became Junior Vice-President of the Students’ Union. He was ordained deacon in 1952 and priest in 1953. His first curacy was at Hinckley, in Leicestershire, and ,in 1954, he moved to a curacy at St George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem, where he contracted polio. He thankfully recovered and ,on return to the UK,  became chaplain of St Boniface Theological College in Warminster, King’s fourth-year training college for ordinands. There, he married Mary Aird and they had their first son, before he returned to London as Vicar of St Michael’s Camberwell.

Edward’s last appointment was at St Mary le Strand with St Clement Danes, where he remained for 27 years, first as Curate-in-Charge, and, from 1974, as Rector.

When Edward was first appointed, the church, a great jewel of the English Baroque, was in an advanced state of decay and covered in soot and pollution from the London traffic. He initiated one of the most high-profile church restoration projects of the early 1980s, attracting support from figures such as the Duke of Gloucester, Sir Donald Sinden and Sir John Betjeman.  Betjeman was a particular admirer of the church and later composed a poem in its honour. That the church was preserved and still commands an eastward view down the Strand is a tribute to Edward’s endeavours.

Edward had been evacuated as a teenager during the Second World War to a farm in Hampshire. It was whilst working here that he had witnessed a plane crash. He rushed to the crash site and recovered the Polish pilot from the burning plane. The pilot kept saying ‘Right me’. What he meant was that he should be given the last rites. The pilot died in his arms, and, at that moment, Edward decided on ordination. He went on to celebrate 66 years since ordination and enjoy 60 years of marriage.

[Adapted from an obituary first published in the Church Times].

Hepatologist at the heart of transformation in liver medicine

Professor Roger Williams, Director of the Institute of Hepatology and Foundation for Liver Research, passed away on 26th July. Widely recognised as a leader in his field, he established the world-renowned Institute of Liver Studies at King’s College Hospital (KCH) in the 1960s and was Director of the Institute of Hepatology at UCL between 1994 and 2016. More recently, he relocated the Institute of Hepatology back to the Denmark Hill campus in 2016.

Professor Edward Byrne, Principal & President of King’s, said: ‘I am deeply saddened to hear of Professor Williams’ death. He was widely regarded as a leader in his field, contributing to our understanding of liver function and disease over a long career. Roger spent two significant periods of his career based with us at King’s and he spent many years establishing us as the UK’s major hepatology centre, before moving to UCL for a short period. We were very pleased to welcome him back when the Institute returned to King’s a few years ago and my thoughts and deep sympathies are with his family.’

Roger’s clinical and research interests were in acute liver failure, liver transplantation and complications of cirrhosis and management of viral hepatitis. Over the course of his long career, he was responsible for numerous innovations in patient care, perhaps one of the most significant being the first liver transplant carried out in the UK in 1968.

He was a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and received many honorary fellowships, prizes and awards throughout his career. The Institute of Hepatology, of which he was Director, is funded by the charity he established in 1974, the Foundation for Liver Research, and it is affiliated to King’s and KCH. The charity is globally renowned for managing liver diseases of all causes and is currently running Europe’s largest liver transplant programme.

Professor Sir Robert Lechler, Provost & Vice-President (Health) at King’s, said: ‘Roger was a great friend and colleague and he will be missed by many of us here at King’s. It is through working in collaboration with clinicians like Roger and the Institute of Hepatology that we can turn our research into clinical practice to benefit patients on the ward. He gave his time generously to his patients, colleagues and students and I send my deepest condolences to his family at this sad time.’

Professor Richard Trembath, Executive Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, said, ‘In addition to the legion of research contributions Roger made over his long career, he was responsible for training several generations of leading hepatologists, working around the world and to whom he remained a mentor and friend. On behalf of the Faculty, may I convey our most sincere condolences to his family, and his colleagues at the Institute.’

Professor Michael Malim, Head of the School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences, said: ‘It has been a privilege and pleasure working with Roger and his Institute. His drive and commitment to the complete translational research pathway was inspirational, and his thoughtful support for the careers of the Institute’s staff and students was deeply valued. Roger was a true visionary and scholar, yet always retained a healthy sense of humour. He will be sorely missed, and my thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues at this very sad time.’