Jerrold Ross Burgess

Former consultant psychiatrist Cumbria (b 1929; q Dublin 1956; DPM, FRCPsych), died from complications of diabetes and heart problems on 4 January 2001. National service interrupted his medical studies, which he began in Sheffield and completed in Dublin. His interest in psychiatry was fostered while doing paediatrics in Southampton. When looking for a consultant post in 1965, he chose the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, Cumbria, on the grounds that it was one of the first psychiatric units to be part of a general hospital. That appealed to him because he was keen to reduce the stigma of mental illness that prevailed at that time. As one of only two consultants for the whole of west Cumbria, he travelled far and wide to outpatient clinics and did domiciliary visits all over the western Lake District. He came to be very much part of the local community. He was passionate about opera, gardening, and sailing. He and his wife spent 30 years developing a magnificent rhododendron garden overlooking the Solway Firth. He transplanted some of the smaller plants …