Daniel Joseph (“Donal”) McWilliams

Daniel Joseph ("Donal") McWilliams

Former consultant orthopaedic surgeon St James’s Hospital, Leeds (b 13 March 1932; q Queen’s University, Belfast, 1955; FRCS), d 21 June 2002.

Donal McWilliams was among the last generation of general orthopaedic surgeons. Having been born to a large family in Northern Ireland, he had to rely on scholarships and prizes to pay for his education. He started training at Queen’s University Belfast in 1949 and graduated with honours in 1955. Donal worked at the Mater Infirmorum Hospital and then the Royal Victoria in Belfast. He left Ireland to become a senior registrar at St James’s Hospital, Leeds, in 1963 and was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon there in 1966, where he developed an interest in the treatment of cerebral palsy.

Throughout his career, Donal remained an ardent teacher of both undergraduates and postgraduates. He became a clinical director of the department of orthopaedics in 1991. His dedication to his work remained undiminished despite the death in 1985 of his beloved wife, Bernadette Guckian, consultant psychiatrist, herself a graduate of Queen’s, leaving him the lone parent of a young family.

He retired from the NHS at 62 having served as a consultant for more than thirty years. He spent the remainder of his life pursuing his hobbies of fishing, travelling back to his native Ireland, and—his favourite pastime—in debate with solicitors for whom he was an expert witness for personal injuries. He died peacefully in the intensive care unit at St James’s University Hospital following a cardiac arrest. [Ian Archer, Anthony McWilliams]