William Alexander Gillespie

William Gillespie was educated in Dublin, and most of his early posts, including that of assistant to Professor Biggar, were in that city. Later he spent three years as a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps, concerned with the Medical Research Council trials of penicillin. In 1947 he was appointed lecturer in clinical pathology in Bristol, later becoming consultant bacteriologist to Bristol Royal Infirmary. He was appointed to a personal chair in clinical bacteriology in 1961. After retiring from this post in 1977, he returned to Dublin as consultant at the Adelaide Hospital and honorary professor at Trinity College.

Among his many essentially practical contributions to the control of infection in hospitals, the most notable was the establishment of the importance of closed urinary drainage after operative procedures and indwelling catheterisation, and of ancillary measures, such as the use of antiseptics and short-course prophylactic antibiotics, in support of this. Early in the occurrence of cross infection by multi-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, William Gillespie identified reservoirs of infection (including the umbilicus in neonates) and the involvement of staff carriers in transmission. He showed the usefulness of judicious topical applications of antiseptics and antibiotic preparations, among the multiple measures needed for successful control. He was influential in the introduction of central departments using reliable methods to provide sterile supplies, being a founder member and an early chairman of the Central Sterilising Club.

His wide interests in microbiology were continued into his retirement and were complemented by enthusiasms for the Italian language and literature, gardening, archaeology, and the history of medicine. He leaves a wife, Marjorie, whom he met when they were research colleagues in Trinity College Dublin, and their two children, John and Geraldine.

Muiris Houston writes: William Gillespie had an international reputation in the field of hospital infections. He was one of the first to use penicillin in the prophylaxis of streptococcal infection in children

The author of more than 130 scientific publications, he also contributed chapters to classical medical texts such as Bailey and Love’s Short Practice of Surgery. A 1952 publication in the Lancet, "Hospital cross infection with staphylococci resistant to several antibiotics," was the first of many dealing with the growing problem of hospital acquired infection. He published extensively on the topic of urinary infection and especially its prevention in men following prostate surgery.

William Gillespie was the son of Thomas and Jessie Gillespie, who ran a furniture and antique business on Stephen’s Green, Dublin. He was educated at St Andrew’s College, Dublin, and entered Trinity College Dublin as a medical student in 1930. An indication of his subsequent career came when he took an extra year during his studies to complete a moderatorship in physiology. After graduating he worked as house officer in the Adelaide Hospital—his old teaching hospital—and at the Royal Infirmary, Preston. He then returned to Dublin to work as senior assistant to Professor Biggar, the then professor of bacteriology and preventive medicine in Trinity. Marjorie Booth, his future wife, also worked in the same department and it is said that their eyes met while checking the Wassermann reactions or WRs—tests routinely carried out on all hospital patients in an era when syphilis was common.

Gillespie then worked for a while as a family doctor, sharing consulting rooms with Dr Bob Collis at 26 Fitzwilliam Square. However, in common with many fellow graduates, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1940. He became a major (special pathologist) and served in Britain, France, and Italy. The work was diverse; as well as running hospital laboratories, William gave much of his service to casualty clearing stations. Here he specialised in surveillance for biological (germ) agents, as well as investigating wound infections as part of a Medical Research Council team. He kept meticulous records of this research into gas gangrene; not long before his death he updated his notes with an explanation as to why there was such a low incidence of the problem in Normandy. In Professor Gillespie’s opinion this was due to a combination of prompt transport of casualties from the front line to field hospitals, rapid surgery, and the availability of penicillin.

He was delighted to receive a call from the Adelaide following his retirement from Bristol in 1977 to see if he was available to fill a locum post at the hospital. William and Marjorie spent a pleasant three years in a small flat in Pearse Street, renewing medical friendships and enjoying being close to Trinity College. He worked closely with consultant urologists at the Meath hospital and was responsible for introducing a system of preoperative urine cultures that helped to define the best antibiotics to use in the event of post-surgery urinary tract infection. He is remembered as an affable colleague with firm but informed views. Gillespie used his time here to study at the Italian Cultural Institute and gained a diploma in the language and culture of Italy in 1979 at the age of 67. He had become fluent in Italian some years earlier, teaching himself the language while recovering from a duodenal ulcer. Following his second retirement from the Adelaide, he took up a seasonal post at the British Institute in Florence, teaching English there.

William Gillespie had a lifelong love of gardening. He was interested in church architecture and was a member of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. He gave regular lectures to the Medical History of Bristol on Edward Jenner, who first described smallpox, and on Joseph Lister, who championed the cause of antisepsis in surgery.

A charming man with a great sense of humour, he loved creating rhymes and puns, especially while sharing seaside holidays with his grandchildren. William was a determined man, who knew what he wanted to do and where he wished to go. He continued to read medical and historical journals until just before he died. [David Speller, Graham Ayliffe]