Alex Sakula

Alex Sakula was born in Whitechapel, the third child of immigrant Polish Jews who came to London in 1900. As a schoolboy he walked daily to Davenant’s Foundation School through the precincts of the London Hospital, strengthening an early resolve to do medicine. At the Middlesex Hospital Medical School he was awarded the Broderip scholarship and, in minimum time after qualifying, he acquired the MD and membership. He then served widely in the Far East as a medical specialist in the Royal Army Medical Corps, including three months in a jungle hospital on the river Kwai caring for recently freed prisoners of war. When he returned to civilian life he specialised in chest medicine and was, in due course, appointed consultant physician to several hospitals in East Surrey and West Sussex. An original contribution at this time was his description of mushroom grower’s lung, which led, once the necessary precautions were taken, to the virtual eradication of the condition.

On retirement from the NHS in 1982 he embarked on what amounted to a second career, in medical history. He explored new and varied topics and he wrote more than 100 papers. His lectures were lucid, authoritative and usually delivered without recourse to notes. Alex participated prominently in leading medico-historical societies and organisations in London and abroad. He held office in nearly all and was elected president of most. In later life he was diabetic, developed glaucoma, had a stroke, and became blind; remarkably he retained his zest and even continued to contribute short papers to journals. He is survived by his wife, Rene, whom he married in 1951, and by their four children. [Denis Gibbs, Nicholas Cambridge]