Linford Rees

Former BMA president who was a leading light in 20th century psychiatry

In a career that lasted over 60 years, Linford Rees played a leading role in initiatives that transformed 20th century psychiatry. He was part of the movement that emptied the long stay asylums, returning patients to the community and to the care of their general practitioners. He organised and raised the status of the specialty and of specialist training. He conducted double-blind controlled trials on the important antipsychotic drugs chlorpromazine and haloperidol, and later on antidepressants. He demonstrated that asthma attacks in susceptible people could be triggered not just by infection and allergy but also by stress. He encouraged his staff at St Bartholomew's to take an interest in psychosomatic relationships—in particular, the effect on mental health of skin conditions, bowel disease, and sexual dysfunction. He was aware of the social stigma of psychiatric illness and did much to reduce it. And he was equally aware of the need to safeguard the rights and interests of patients while protecting them from the consequences of their illnesses.

Linford Rees was born into a Welsh-speaking family in Burry Port, Carmarthen-shire; his father and several relatives were teachers. From Llanelli Grammar School he went to the Welsh National School of Medicine, Cardiff, where he was awarded scholarships and prizes. Although psychiatry was an unfashionable specialty, he became assistant medical officer at Worcester City and County Mental Hospital, Powick. He was in charge of 800 male patients and had to do everything from performing autopsies, taking part in patients' dances, and preparing their medication in the pharmacist's absence.

Rees did his postgraduate training at the Maudsley Hospital, London. During the second world war he treated servicemen who had developed psychiatric disorders, working under Hans Eysenck and Sir Aubrey Lewis, two of the legendary names in psychiatry. Out of this experience arose Rees's lifelong interest in psychosomatic medicine. Despite a heavy clinical load he carried out research, including the work that led to the Rees-Eysenck Index that demonstrated the difference in body build between psychological groups. Immediately afterwards he worked with a specialist unit for prisoners of war who were left with neuroses.

After the war, in 1946, he returned to Wales, to Whitchurch Hospital, where he was also regional psychiatrist for Wales and Monmouthshire, but in 1954 he was persuaded to return to the Maudsley. Two years later he was appointed to a lectureship at St Bartholomew's Medical College and in 1966 was made professor, remaining there until 1980 and retiring as emeritus professor. He then spent nine years as medical director and psychiatrist to Charter Medical, a group of private clinics. In his last 15 years he was director and medical adviser to Huntercombe Manor Hospital, Maidenhead.

Rees was a distinguished visiting lecturer and examiner at universities in five continents, and was made a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1950 and a CBE in 1978. He served on many expert, professional, government, and World Health Organization committees.

He wrote many scientific papers—the first in 1946 on intravenous barbiturates for hysteria, and the most recent in 1999, on the history of clinical trials in psychopharmacology—contributed to several books, and was author of A Short Textbook of Psychiatry and co-author of Textbook of Psychiatry.

He was chairman of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association from 1957 to 1963, and when that organisation became the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1971 he was a founder member, an honorary fellow, and, from 1975 to 1978, president. He was president of the Society for Psychosomatic Research in 1957-8 and of the BMA in 1978-9.

Linford Rees was a great teacher who radiated warmth. He would ask patients, in his gentle Welsh voice, “And how are you in your spirits today?” thus instantly raising those spirits. He took his children with him on his Christmas ward rounds, even into the locked wards.

He was handsomely Celtic, unwrinkled in old age, and his lifelong love of the outdoors gave him a permanent tan. Weather permitting, he taught his students outdoors. He listed his recreations as swimming, photography, and amusing his nine grandchildren. He also loved water-skiing, sea fishing, and ballroom dancing. He had a sense of fun. Rees enjoyed rugby football, supported the London Welsh, and enjoyed Welsh-language rugby commentary on satellite television. He was blind in his later years, but his family and friends read to him, including keeping him abreast of learned journals. He remained otherwise well in his old age and died in his sleep, while taking a “little nap” after a cup of tea and a Welsh cake.

His wife, Catherine, and a son, who was a urologist, predeceased him. He leaves a son and two daughters.

A memorial service will be held at the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

William Linford Llewelyn Rees, professor of psychological medicine St Bartholomew's Medical College, London, 1966-80 and BMA president 1978-9 (b 1914; q Cardiff 1938; DPM), d 29 July 2004.