Dame Barbara Clayton

Dame Barbara Clayton, who has died aged 88, showed the importance of lead as a poison in children, and her research brought about its removal from paint, domestic plumbing, and eventually petrol. At Great Ormond Street Hospital in London in the 1960s she introduced new methods for detecting phenylketonuria, now familiar to all parents who witness the midwife taking a needleprick of blood from their newborn baby’s heel. She was at the forefront of emphasising the importance of nutrition in medicine. Among her many roles on advisory groups and committees, she chaired a controversial inquiry into water contamination at Camelford in Cornwall. She also furthered the role of women in medicine, becoming the first female president of the Royal College of Pathologists (1984-7) and the first woman to be dean of Southampton medical school.