Martin Peter Ward Platt

After attending Oundle school, Martin Peter Ward Platt studied medicine at Bristol University, where he met his future wife, Anne. He became interested in paediatrics while a student and did senior house officer posts in paediatrics in Bristol, as well as a year in pathology. It was during the latter post that he started his lifelong interest in perinatal morbidity and mortality and indeed research in general. A move to the north east followed, and it was here he remained for the rest of his career. Alongside his clinical training, which included a neonatal fellowship spell at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne, Australia, he held an Action Research training fellowship, investigating the metabolic and endocrine responses of children to surgery, which led to his MD. On completing his training in 1990 he was appointed as a consultant to the neonatal unit at the Princess Mary Maternity Hospital until the two maternity services in Newcastle were amalgamated on the Royal Victoria Infirmary site in 1993.

Martin was not simply a neonatologist: his interests spanned all aspects of child health, from teaching and training to service delivery, public health, and research. To all of these he brought a truly unique style and had an extraordinary ability to communicate any concept, however …