John David Baum

Professor of child health, University of Bristol, 1985-99 (b 1940; q Birmingham 1963; FRCP, FRCPCH), died from a heart attack while taking part in a charity cycle ride to raise funds for children affected by war, particularly those in the Balkans, on 5 September 1999. In 1967 David joined the team led by Sir Peter Tizard at the Hammersmith Hospital and made a reputation for his work caring for the newborn and in neonatal nutrition. He was visiting professor at the University of Colorado before moving to Oxford as a lecturer in 1972. His interests widened to include carbohydrate disorders, particularly diabetes mellitus, in childhood He developed an affinity for the care of mortally ill children and was president of the Association for Children with Life Threatening or Terminal Conditions and their Families.

When he came to Bristol in 1985 David immediately devised a plan for an Institute of Child Health, and a converted nurses' home was opened in 1989. He saw the need to broaden the clinical repertoire to include all the paediatric specialties. He played a part in the development of the new Bristol Children's Hospital, which will embrace his vision of a comprehensive tertiary paediatric service for southwest England. Perhaps his most important unfinished business was as a children's advocate, and his campaign triumphed in the formation of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, of which he was its second president from 1987. David brought an international perspective to his presidency and conceived and chaired a unique international task force under the patronage of the Princess Royal Peace and reconciliation in the Middle East was another cause he strove for.

David was a man of ideas with a firm practical streak, which enabled most of them to succeed, and the results are so widespread that …