James Leo Gibbons

James Leo Gibbons was born in Felling, Newcastle upon Tyne, the only child of John Gibbons and Cissy, née McShane, both schoolteachers. After attending the Felling Catholic school of which his father was the headmaster, Gibbons was educated at Ushaw College, a boarding school preparing boys for entry to the seminary, where he received an excellent classical education.

After a house officer appointment at the Leazes Hospital, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Gibbons did his national service (1949-50) in the medical branch of the Royal Air Force. He then started his career in psychiatry as house officer in the psychiatric unit at Newcastle General Hospital (1950-51) and senior house officer in the Department of Psychological Medicine, Royal Victoria Infirmary (1951-52). A year as research assistant in neurology at King’s College Medical School, University of Durham, with Henry Miller resulted in papers on encephalitis, including a definitive review of the neurology of the childhood fevers, 80 pages long, with 419 references.

In 1953 Gibbons moved to the Department of Medicine (1953-54) at Hammersmith Hospital, …