Edward Nigel Armitage

Edward Nigel Armitage was born in Huddersfield in 1935. His education at Oundle was mainly in classics, and he did not start science subjects until he was 15. His career in anaesthesia was perhaps predestined by the motto on the Armitage family crest: “Semper paratus” (always prepared)!

He qualified from University College Hospital, London, in 1960 and undertook his first anaesthetic post there, developing an early interest in regional anaesthesia and analgesia, mentored by the late Massey Dawkins. He then went to Great Ormond Street as a registrar and recognised the need for what was to become perhaps his major interest, regional anaesthesia in children, which was used hardly at all at that time in the United Kingdom.

Next, he went to work with the late John Bonica in Seattle. There, almost every patient received a regional block, and this experience cemented his combined interest in regional and paediatric anaesthesia. On returning to the UK he went to Brighton, initially as a senior registrar, and was appointed consultant paediatric anaesthetist in 1973. Using conscientious clinical observation he developed his now well known formula for the volume of local anaesthetic required for …