Alexander Gordon

Dr Alexander Gordon (“Alex”) was for many years a consultant in neuropathology in Edinburgh, providing a first class diagnostic service to the clinical neurosciences unit. At first the service was within the old Royal Infirmary and then at the Western General Hospital, where he was instrumental in designing and commissioning spacious new pathology laboratories. He will be remembered with respect and affection not only by the long serving staff members of his own department but also by the many students and graduates who passed through in training. He was a modest man and disliked the formal teaching setting of the lecture hall but was renowned as a teacher in the lab, where his anecdotes and dry wit endeared him to all.

Knowing that Edinburgh was host to what is one of the oldest neuropathology departments in the United Kingdom, he compiled a fascinating account of its history and presented this at the British Neuropathological Society, of which …