Solomon Leonard Barron

Born and bred in Whitechapel, London, Solomon Leonard Barron was evacuated with his younger brother to Somerset in 1939. He returned to London in 1943 and worked as an air raid warden, continuing his education at the South East Essex technical college and winning a scholarship for St Thomas’ medical school in 1944.

After house jobs Leonard undertook surgical training in London and Leicester before training in obstetrics and gynaecology at several prestigious units in London (with Joe Wrigley his mentor throughout), moving to Newcastle as consultant in 1967. Well schooled in research methods for the epidemiology of human reproduction and perinatal survey work, he was involved in important national studies as well as undertaking overseas advisory work for the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO). His expertise in rhesus disease and his research into the social issues of the specialty were internationally recognised.

His working life was filled to the brim with hard work, unstinting service to his patients and their families, and the NHS. What gave a definitive stamp to all that he …