- Email: [email protected]
Sir Edward Pochin KBE Hon.FRCR
Clinical Oncology (1990) 2:243-244 0 1990 The Royal College of Radiologists
Clinical Oncology
0 bituaries
SIR EDWARD
POCHIN KBE Hon.FRCR
Sir Edward Pochin was a father of Nuclear Medicine, a physiologist and endocrinologist, distinguished in teaching and research, and internationally known for his work on the effects and hazards of ionizing radiation. He liked to be known as ‘Bill’ and only reluctantly accepted that he might occasionally be called ‘Sir Edward’ after he received his knighthood. He was born in Sale, Cheshire in 1909 and died aged 80 on 29 January 1990. He was a scholar at Repton School, gained a double first at Cambridge, and learnt his clinical skills at University College Hospital, London, where he fell under the spell of Sir Thomas Lewis, the cardiologist who pioneered in experimental research on man himself and was the founder of the Medical Research Council Department of Clinical Research. Pochin joined Sir Thomas Lewis’s department in 1941 and then left temporarily to go to the Army Physiological Laboratory. After the end of the war he became Director of the Department of Clinical Research and almost immediately began to study the medical use of the radioactive iodines newly available from the ‘atomic piles’. There followed a highly productive period of meticulous quantitative investigation of the human metabolism of iodine, devising new methods and new concepts, and the treatment of thyrotoxicosis and thyroid cancer. He followed Lewis’s example in writing very carefully; collaboration with him in a publication could be highly educational. He was conscientious in his clinical work and kind and considerate to his patients. He had an astonishing capacity for working out complicated statistics in his head and found difficulty in understanding how colleagues on a ward round could not have an equally rapid comprehension. He was later able to display similar qualities in many international bodies. He helped to found the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and was for many years Chairman of its Biological Subcommittee. He was personally responsible for the 1977 Report section on Carcinogenesis in Man, and was universally respected by delegates from countries as different as the USSR and the USA (left and right hand neighbours at committee meetings), the Sudan and Peru, West Germany and France. He was equally effective on the International Commission on Radiation Protection, becoming its Chairman. Visits all over the world followed. At home he took part in the work of the National Radiological Protection Board and in many hearings on the merits of Nuclear Power Stations, giving advice to the Government and the Medical Research Council from before the Windscale fire in 1957 up to the Chernobyl accident. All this time, up to 1974, he continued his work at University College Hospital looking after his thyroid patients and a general medical unit, with undergraduate teaching, and the Department of Clinical Research. Retirement from these only led to a move to the NRPB, from which he continued to work as hard as ever, adding to his very considerable list of publications. He was always loyal and helpful to staff of all kinds. He liked to walk and climb in Skye while on holiday and would try to fit in similar activity during or after visits to countries as diverse as Peru and China. During his annual visits to Vienna he would regularly walk from his pension, in the heart of the city to the new UN centre on the opposite side of the Danube. He enjoyed painting and sketching and one of his own sketches would
frequently appear on his Christmas Greetings. He was a great and kind doctor. KEITH E.
DR MAURICE
HALNAN
SUTTON
Dr Maurice Sutton, Director of the Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology at the North Middlesex Hospital, Sterling Way, London N18 lQX, died suddenly and unexpectedly on 19 December 1988. Maurice Sutton was born on 4 March 1928 and began his education at the William Ellis School in Highgate. He went on to study medicine at the London Hospital in Whitechapel, showing early academic prowess with prizes in Physics and Anatomy, and a distinction in Applied Pharmacology in the final MB in 1951. After house jobs at the London and Royal Northern Hospitals, he was in the Royal Air Force for 3 years from 19.52-1955. Maurice then spent 3 years from 1955-1958 in the Radiotherapy Department at Hammersmith Hospital. He worked at the Middlesex Hospital as a Registrar with Miss Margaret Snelling in 1959-1960, returning to Hammersmith Hospital as a Senior Registrar from 1960-1965. He passed both the FRCS and the FFR in 1959. During this time-he was seconded for a year to Auckland Hosnital in New Zealand as Senior Visiting Radiotherapist. He particularly enjoyed this period in hi
Clinical Oncology
0 bituaries
SIR EDWARD
POCHIN KBE Hon.FRCR
Sir Edward Pochin was a father of Nuclear Medicine, a physiologist and endocrinologist, distinguished in teaching and research, and internationally known for his work on the effects and hazards of ionizing radiation. He liked to be known as ‘Bill’ and only reluctantly accepted that he might occasionally be called ‘Sir Edward’ after he received his knighthood. He was born in Sale, Cheshire in 1909 and died aged 80 on 29 January 1990. He was a scholar at Repton School, gained a double first at Cambridge, and learnt his clinical skills at University College Hospital, London, where he fell under the spell of Sir Thomas Lewis, the cardiologist who pioneered in experimental research on man himself and was the founder of the Medical Research Council Department of Clinical Research. Pochin joined Sir Thomas Lewis’s department in 1941 and then left temporarily to go to the Army Physiological Laboratory. After the end of the war he became Director of the Department of Clinical Research and almost immediately began to study the medical use of the radioactive iodines newly available from the ‘atomic piles’. There followed a highly productive period of meticulous quantitative investigation of the human metabolism of iodine, devising new methods and new concepts, and the treatment of thyrotoxicosis and thyroid cancer. He followed Lewis’s example in writing very carefully; collaboration with him in a publication could be highly educational. He was conscientious in his clinical work and kind and considerate to his patients. He had an astonishing capacity for working out complicated statistics in his head and found difficulty in understanding how colleagues on a ward round could not have an equally rapid comprehension. He was later able to display similar qualities in many international bodies. He helped to found the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and was for many years Chairman of its Biological Subcommittee. He was personally responsible for the 1977 Report section on Carcinogenesis in Man, and was universally respected by delegates from countries as different as the USSR and the USA (left and right hand neighbours at committee meetings), the Sudan and Peru, West Germany and France. He was equally effective on the International Commission on Radiation Protection, becoming its Chairman. Visits all over the world followed. At home he took part in the work of the National Radiological Protection Board and in many hearings on the merits of Nuclear Power Stations, giving advice to the Government and the Medical Research Council from before the Windscale fire in 1957 up to the Chernobyl accident. All this time, up to 1974, he continued his work at University College Hospital looking after his thyroid patients and a general medical unit, with undergraduate teaching, and the Department of Clinical Research. Retirement from these only led to a move to the NRPB, from which he continued to work as hard as ever, adding to his very considerable list of publications. He was always loyal and helpful to staff of all kinds. He liked to walk and climb in Skye while on holiday and would try to fit in similar activity during or after visits to countries as diverse as Peru and China. During his annual visits to Vienna he would regularly walk from his pension, in the heart of the city to the new UN centre on the opposite side of the Danube. He enjoyed painting and sketching and one of his own sketches would
frequently appear on his Christmas Greetings. He was a great and kind doctor. KEITH E.
DR MAURICE
HALNAN
SUTTON
Dr Maurice Sutton, Director of the Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology at the North Middlesex Hospital, Sterling Way, London N18 lQX, died suddenly and unexpectedly on 19 December 1988. Maurice Sutton was born on 4 March 1928 and began his education at the William Ellis School in Highgate. He went on to study medicine at the London Hospital in Whitechapel, showing early academic prowess with prizes in Physics and Anatomy, and a distinction in Applied Pharmacology in the final MB in 1951. After house jobs at the London and Royal Northern Hospitals, he was in the Royal Air Force for 3 years from 19.52-1955. Maurice then spent 3 years from 1955-1958 in the Radiotherapy Department at Hammersmith Hospital. He worked at the Middlesex Hospital as a Registrar with Miss Margaret Snelling in 1959-1960, returning to Hammersmith Hospital as a Senior Registrar from 1960-1965. He passed both the FRCS and the FFR in 1959. During this time-he was seconded for a year to Auckland Hosnital in New Zealand as Senior Visiting Radiotherapist. He particularly enjoyed this period in hi