Robert Cruickshank (Jim) BurgessEvan Lewis ButlerDonald John CampbellSusanta Kumar GuptaAndrew Henry Garmany LoveJane Ann Marks (née Blythe)Adèle Nye (née Fischbacher)Gordon Jackson ReesRobert MacDonald ShawThambipillai Sivalingham
BMJ 2001; 322 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.322.7287.678 (Published 17 March 2001) Cite this as: BMJ 2001;322:678Robert Cruickshank (Jim) Burgess
Former chief medical officer nutrition World Health Organization, Geneva (b 1902; q St Andrews 1927; DPH, DTM&H), d 15 November 2000. Jim joined the Malayan Medical Service soon after qualification and specialised in the nutritional problems of the rural population; his field studies of diet and beri-beri explained its unusual pattern of rising with prosperity (eating milled rice) and falling when the economy was depressed (eating hand-pounded rice). After a spell in the Institute for Medical Research in Kuala Lumpur, when war came he joined the army as nutrition officer for Malaya Command. Imprisoned in Changi in Singapore, he played a large part in developing ways of combating the many deficiency diseases prevalent among the malnourished prisoners, including helping to set up a “factory” to produce an extract of grass to prevent and treat riboflavin deficiency. After the war he joined WHO, where his knowledge of, and sympathy with, rural people in developing countries ensured that his proposals for action were realistic and practical. When he retired in 1962, he joined the department of public health at Edinburgh, staying until 1967. He enjoyed hill walking, and played golf until his 90s. Predeceased by his wife, Anne, he leaves two children, and three grandchildren.
[Stuart L Morrison]
Evan Lewis Butler
Former general practitioner north Birmingham 1929-77 (b 1903; q Birmingham 1927), d 10 November 2000. On leaving school aged 17, he was too young to sit the entrance examination for medical school and so took a one year BSc in physiology. After qualifying, he became a locum/assistant for two years until a pharmaceutical representative said there was an opening for a practice on a new housing estate in Erdington, Birmingham. He started in a semi-detached house with a bicycle and by 1939 sold his Bentley to the government as a staff car. In 1937 …
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