David Gullick

Derek Paul Stevenson · Hugh Jackson Houston · Samuel Thompson (Tom) Irwin · John Stephen · Phillips Jones · Cesari Maltoni · Dorothy Anne Morgan · William Michael O'Connor Moore · Owen Parry-Jones · Henry Bruce Torrance · Gerald Wiseman.

BMA secretary 1958-76 (b 1911; q Guy’s 1935; FRCGP, CBE), d 4 March 2001. After qualifying he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving with distinction in the Far East and in France. His posting to oversee medical recruitment at the War Office brought him into close touch with Charles Hill, then BMA secretary. After the war Hill “recruited” him to the BMA staff. He got there just as Aneurin Bevan introduced the NHS Bill; he retired 30 years later after many of the perennial crises of the NHS. He adapted quickly to the storms of an ultra-democratic association, having several favourable qualities. A man of distinguished presence—once called “debonair”—he was a fine judge of the art of the utmost possible; intensely loyal to the association and to his colleagues, to whom he delegated with trust and judgment. Above all, he realised that the NHS and the professions were news; he made and kept close links with the fourth estate, in whose ranks he had many friends. This involved much commitment, well in excess of 9 to 5; figuratively, he “lived over the shop.” His BMA years involved too much to catalogue. Among the highlights two royal commissions (on pay and on education of doctors); an uprising against the reform of the General Medical Council; the “battle of the pay beds”; and, domestically, a major reform of the BMA itself. As ambassador overseas, Stevenson was first secretary of the Commonwealth Medical Association, and later chairman of the World Medical Association. On his retirement in 1976, the BMA awarded him its gold medal as “an outstanding leader, a tireless champion of the profession, and a great secretary.” He had earlier been awarded an honorary doctorate. One might think such a career precluded all else. Not so. Derek was for 60 years married to his greatest supporter, Pam, who survives him together with their daughter, two sons, and grandchildren. His long years of retirement let him devote to them his love and the time of which the BMA had deprived them. And he found time to play good golf, and to sail. [David Gullick]

Annual general meeting of the BMA. Bma or UKMA

Editor—Unless second thoughts prevail the BMA’s annual general meeting on 7 July will be asked to make a grievous and unjust error. It will be proposed that our 4000-odd overseas members (some of those in the armed forces) be disenfranchised and deprived of their entitlement to membership benefits. Why and how did this come about? Apart from four overseas branches our members are scattered worldwide, from China to Peru. Some of them have sought help from BMA House on “terms of service” and the like. While this is run of the mill stuff for our staff when sent in by members from the United Kingdom they have neither the expertise, nor time, to cope with queries from Argentina or Zimbabwe. What could be done? Someone last summer thought up the special resolution as an answer: reduce them all to second class citizens without a vote, and then they can importune in vain. Having decided this, our council did not notify or consult the overseas branches. It also failed to instruct our lawyers to look for the knock on effects of the changes on other articles and byelaws. As a result, if the resolution is passed, for 12 months at least anomalies and doubts will give BMA House more trouble than the original problem. Just two examples will do: no overseas member will be obliged to pay a subscription, and none who is now a fellow may remain so. The council did not think the proposal merited a mention in its annual report, so it remained a secret until the AGM notice in the BMJ of 5 June—four weeks before the decision was to be taken.1 What a way to treat the membership: a total denial of natural justice—think of the reaction in our Hong Kong branch, already under pressure to disband. If the resolution is put and passed, then surely our overseas membership will wither away. Why remain as a second class member when one can subscribe to the BMJ at a lower rate as a non-member? The resolution is neither urgent nor necessary. There are alternative ways of amending the articles to cope with the problem; a nut requires no sledgehammer. I have suggested such alternatives to BMA House but so far have had no reply. So, unless there is a change of heart by then, I urge all present at the AGM to refer the resolution back to the council for reconsideration.

An Influential Doctor

The senior partner of the practice that I joined in 1945 had himself entered it before the first world war. In my unformed opinion he was a good doctor, making best use of what drugs were then available. He was always glad to hear from me of any recent development that I had learnt as a houseman. In turn he set about educating me in the proper conduct of practice, very necessary as this was before preregistration and traineeships. He was an austere man. While widely respected, he was not— and did not seek to be—the beloved physician. He had allied to a natural reserve a strict personal code of professional …