Dr Dermot McCracken, FRCP, died 22nd August 2008

The following obituary was published on the University of Leeds website:

We are very sorry to have to let members know that Dr Dermot McCracken, former Medical Officer in the University Health Service, died on 22nd August 2008, in his ninetieth year.

Dr McCracken was awarded the degree of BSc in Anatomy, Physiology and Anthropology by the University of Wales in 1939, graduating MB, BCh three years later and obtaining Distinctions in two subjects. In 1945 he was successful in the MRCP (London) examinations.

Dr McCracken acquired extensive clinical experience in both hospital medicine and general practice before coming to Leeds. After holding house jobs at hospitals in Cardiff, he worked at Sully Hospital, at that time the Chest Centre for South Wales. From 1944 to 1946, he was on the medical staff of the City General Hospital in Leicester, whence he went on to take up a post as Assistant Lecturer in Medicine in the Medical Unit at the Welsh National School of Medicine. Two of his papers, including one on asthma, were published in the British Medical Journal.

His next appointment, from 1948 to 1950, was as Assistant Physician to the Ashton-under-Lyne group of hospitals in Lancashire, with responsibility for the medical and paediatric wards. He remained in that part of the world, when, in 1950, he became a partner in a large general practice in a semi-rural area on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border. He was to stay with this practice until 1962, quickly establishing a reputation as an approachable and thoroughly knowledgeable physician who kept himself fully abreast of advances in medicine, and as an individual of integrity and high principle.

These professional and personal qualities continued to be prominently displayed after Dr McCracken joined the University Health Service (then known as the Department of Student Health) in August 1962. His work was very highly valued by patients and colleagues alike, and his interest, energy and commitment were central to the Service being able to adapt successfully to a protracted period of expansion and development, as a result of both the growth in student numbers and an increasing involvement in other areas, most notably occupational health issues.

On reaching the age of sixty in 1979, Dr McCracken relinquished his full-time post but continued in a part-time capacity until September 1983. In retirement, he and his wife, moved first to Coniston in the Lake District and then to the Bristol area, to be closer to family.

Dr McCracken's wife, Margaret, also a doctor, died shortly before he did. They are survived by their children.

Dr Bent Juel-Jensen, 11 November 1922 - 20 December 2006

As his middle name implies, Dr Bent Einer Juel-Jensen was a 'One-Off''- a truly remarkable man, who has been described by one writer as a Polymath - collector, bibliophile, linguist and physician: and who is recorded on the commemorative marble slab in the Bodleian Library in Oxford as Benedictus Juel-Jensen.

Bent was born In Odense Denmark, and lived there throughout the Second World War. He graduated in medicine at Copenhagen and saw service for two years in the Danish navy. He did not come to England until1949, and was forced to take further undergraduate training in Oxford until gaining his BM in 1953. His DM followed in 1972.

Perhaps it was because of his different perspective in age and place but Bent clearly saw a need that he felt he could meet. The provision of student health care in the ancient universities of Oxbridge is complicated by the sturdy independence of each college. But the unifying effect of the medical school at the Radcliffe allowed Bent an opening and he served as Medical Officer to the Medical School 1960-1977 and then as the Medical Officer for the whole university 1976-1990. He was a true academic who saw endless possibilities for research in his day-to-day work.

The British Student Health Association provided a good link with similar workers in Great Britain and Ireland. But typically Bent went further than anyone else. In 1962-3 he took a Rockefeller travelling fellowship to Harvard to study student health provision in USA.

The American Colleges Health Association Fellows organization was established in 1967 to recognize those members who have given outstanding service to the association and have demonstrated superior professional stature and performance in the college health field. Members who have earned fellowship in the association are as follows. It will come as no surprise that Bent Juel-Jensen is on that hallowed list.

One of the great traditions of both Oxford and Cambridge universities was the dispatch of expeditions to exotic destinations around the world. By trial and error a great deal of skill was amassed in both the preventive and therapeutic fields of health care for these travellers. One of Bent's many pieces of writing was "Expeditions Medicine" (1986). In 1973 Bent went to Ethiopia for the first time; this led to another huge number of experiences and challenges that could have filled a whole lifetime for a lesser being.

It was in that same year 1973 that Bent Juel-Jensen became President of the BSHA at its annual conference - held in Cambridge that year and hosted by Dr. Hawtrey May, another expert in expedition medicine. This was the year when the old order was ousted and a new modern management structure was introduced. Dr. John Munro (Durham) was appointed as the first Chairman. It was the first BSHA conference for Dr. Ronnie Siler (Edinburgh) and he was heard rather wistfully to remark that he "had never seen before so many eccentrics in one room at the same time". It is said that it takes one to know one, and this may well have been true on this occasion; but Bent's deviations from the normal were all on the plus side of good - truly a one-off.   [Robin Harland]

Kathy Stallwood, died 7th May 2006

Kathy Stallwood died on 7th May 2006 following a long battle with breast cancer.

Kathy trained as a nurse in St Patrick Duns Hospital in Dublin, followed by midwifery training at Kingsbury Maternity Hospital and Paddington General Hospital. In 1974 Kathy took a post at Southampton Institute of Higher Education as a Health Advisor in Occupational Health / Student Health Services.

It was at this point that her interest in student health began and she became a member of B.A.H.S.H.E. She attended annual conference every year and also regularly attended the BAHSHE nurses conferences. In 1999 she was elected as Non University representative on the Executive Committee. She was an active and lively member of the committee, never shy of voicing an opinion. She had a great interest in the management of meningitis out- breaks in universities and participated in working parties addressing this issue.

Her breast cancer was diagnosed in 2000 but she refused to be daunted by this and continued to work and live life to the full, enjoying foreign travel, a full social life and her interests of gardening, walking , reading and restoring old furniture.

She is survived by her husband Stephen, her daughter and four grandchildren. [Sandra Furmston]

Agnes Hallimond Wilkinson (née Crozier), MRCP London 1942, FRCPsych 1985, died 19th June 2005

Agnes Crozier was born in South Africa in November 1915. She lived variously at Tiger Kloof-a school for Bantu children at Vryberg, founded by her missionary grandfather (WC Willoughby, London Missionary Society), and later in Johannesburg. After returning to England the Crozier family moved to Birmingham in 1931, where she attended King Edward's High School, before entering Birmingham Medical School. As an undergraduate she played hockey for Warwickshire and was lady president of the Medical Students' Society.

After obtaining her MB ChB in 1939, she worked as House Physician to Prof Kenneth Wilkinson, one of England's first generation of Cardiologists. In late 1941, despite a 30 year age difference, they were married and she acquired four stepchildren. Nicknamed "George" by her husband, she had three children of her own, before being widowed in 1951. In the following year she moved to Bristol, where she became physician in charge of student health and developed an interest in psychotherapy, training as an analytic psychotherapist.

In 1960 she moved to London and entered full time practice as a psychotherapist. She worked at the London School of Economics, to which she was Psychiatric Adviser, and at the West London Hospital, as well as in private practice. She continued to be actively involved with student health and the British Association of Health Services in Higher Education, of which she was president in 1978. She was also a life member of the BMA.

After retirement in 1986 she remained active, doing a postgraduate course in gerontology, and keeping in touch with former colleagues. In 1991 she went back to Africa for a nostalgic return to her roots. In Botswana she was feted well and met the President and many members of the government - some of them "Old Tigers" (former students of Tiger Kloof). Her last years were spent in Hove and later Brighton, where she remained cheerful and good humoured, with a ready smile and a sense of fun, until the last few days. She died, aged 90, following a stroke.

She leaves one stepson, two daughters and a son (a paediatric cardiologist), 11 step grandchildren, 7 grandchildren (one a paediatrician, one a veterinary surgeon and another an orthopaedic surgeon), 27 step great grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Two stepsons (one a general practitioner) and her stepdaughter had predeceased her. [Prof James Wilkinson]

Dr Derek George Holden Sylvester, died 22nd September 2004

Derek Sylvester died on the 22nd September 2004. After graduating from St Marys Hospital (1946), he gained his MD (London) in 1952. Derek was appointed Physician in Charge of the University of Bristol Students' Health Service in 1959. He was an ardent supporter of the British Student Health Association (now BAHSHE) and was President in 1975. He researched several aspects of student health, and in a seminal paper over 20 years ago, he showed that cervical smears were not of benefit in students under 25 year old. Only now has the NHS adopted this policy (except in Scotland). He had a special interest in dermatology.

He was born in Suffolk of a long line of doctors and apothecaries going back to the 18th Century. Whenever possible, he wore a flower in his lapel picked from his garden that morning. His medical knowledge was excellent and his love of his subject showed in the way he cared for his patients. He was a wonderful colleague and had a calm, intellectually inquisitive approach to his work.

He retired from student health in 1985. He is survived by his wife Gill, his son and two daughters, and two grandchildren.

John Stewart Munro, MB. ChB., D(Obst)RCOG (1931 - 2003)

John Munro graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1955. After National Service in the RAF, further junior hospital appointments and a spell in General Practice, John was appointed Medical Officer to Durham University in 1965. There his work was chiefly with the mental health of the students who consulted in the University Health Service, their physical ailments being cared for by nearby General Practitioners. In addition he became a Hospital Practitioner in Psychological Medicine and a member of the Institute of Psychosexual Medicine.

He soon became an active member of the British Student Health Association (as BAHSHE was then named) and was the first Chair of the Association when this post was created in 1973, remaining in post for 5 years. His modernising work with the Association was immense and he was later elected President in 1980. John died on 19 December 2003 at the age of 72 after a series of cerebral vascular accidents. He leaves his wife, Margaret, two daughters and a son.

Dr Robert Bolton, died 3rd May 2003

Dr Robert Bolton graduated from Oxford in 1932 and, after working as a Ship's Doctor and in the Peckham Health Centre in London, started the first full-time University Health Service in the British Isles in Birmingham in 1945, where he had 3,000 students. Robert was a founder member of the British Student Health Officers' Association (later changing to our present name) and was the first President to wear the current chain of office. Robert died peacefully at his home in the New Forrest. Our good wishes and sympathy go to his wife and family.

Dr James Crighton born 1924, q. Dundee 1951, died 23 December 2002

His many friends in BAHSHE will be saddened to learn of the death of Jimmy Crighton after a long fight with prostate cancer. Jimmy had just completed his first year in an MA course when he was conscripted. He served in the Royal Artillery in India, and while there decided to read medicine. In 1946 he enrolled at the University of St. Andrews. After qualifying he worked as a GP in Mottram, Lancs. from 1952 to 1957, and then in Kelty, Fife from 1957 until 1966. In October of that year he joined Hugh Binnie in the Student Health Service at Leicester, and then became its Director in 1972. This service provided care for both the University of Leicester and the Leicester Polytechnic (later De Montfort University).

He was a very active supporter of the British Student Health Association, where he served on the Committee for many years, and was the principal organiser of several conferences and study weekends. he was delighted when he was presented with the Alec Macklin Prize. He was appointed President in 1979/80.
Jimmy retired in 1989 but, typically, retirement meant taking up a new challenge. He returned to academia as a student of German Literature and this led to his second graduation when he was awarded a PhD from the University of Leicester.

Jimmy leaves his wife, Beth, four children and five grandchildren.