Dr Ian Gordon

7 May 1909 - 5 March 1992

MB ChB 1932

Ian Gordon was born in the fishing town of Buckie, Banffshire, to John W Gordon, a local government official, and Mary née Taylor, a teacher and farmer’s daughter.  He was educated at Buckie High School and went to University of Aberdeen at 16 years.  Due to his young age he studied a BSc in medical sciences before entering a MB ChB medical course. During his studies at University of Aberdeen, Ian Gordon was active in Aberdeen Universities Officer’s Training Corps, and played the saxophone in the Student’s Union dance band.

After graduation as a doctor, he became the House Physician at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, before moving to London where he was the house physician, then Resident Medical Officer, then Medical Registrar at the Royal Chest Hospital, also gaining experience as RMO and medical registrar at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. In 1936, he obtained membership of the Royal College of Physicians, and in 1937, back in Aberdeen, he was appointed assistant physician at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and the Royal Aberdeen Hospital for Sick Children, as well as the first Medical Officer for the Student Health Service at The University of Aberdeen.  During this time, in 1938, he was also commissioned as an officer within Aberdeen Universities Officer Training Corps.

In 1939, with the onset of war, Ian joined the 15^th (Scottish) General Hospital as a Major, with the initial plan of going to Norway following invasion, however this operation was cancelled.  The field hospital left with a ceremony from Waverley Station in Edinburgh, first travelling to Peebles Hydro.  They were stationed in Cairo in the Middle East. While there, on 30 December 1941, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire, following recommendation by Colonel Longmore, for his great contribution to the unit, recognising his exceptional ability, skill and enthusiasm, as well as willingly and efficiently adopting the post of Officer in Charge, due to absence, owing to illness, of the appointed officer.

During his work in Cairo, he researched infective hepatitis, publishing “Infective Hepatitis: With Special Reference to the Oral Hippuric Acid Test’ on 25^th December 1943 in the British Medical Journal, a remarkable and informative description of all aspects of the illness, with a focus on the benefit of liver function tests, and the relevance of this illness in wartime.  It is believed during wartime he also conducted research into trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and the tsetse fly that transmits the protozoan, though the details of this research are unclear. While in Cairo he developed pulmonary tuberculosis and was temporarily transferred to South Africa, where he made a quick and full recovery.  While there he met Dr Adriana Katarina van der Horst, who was working in the field hospital, having studied medicine and the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.  He proposed two weeks later, and they were married in Johannesburg in February 1945.

Their first son, Peter, was born in Johannesburg February 1946, followed by Meriel, and twins Alan and Donald.  All studied at The University of Aberdeen, with Peter and Alan also studying medicine.  A kind, fun and generous grandfather to his nine grandchildren, he and Adriana organised annual family gatherings from 1979, including one returning to Peebles Hydro.

In 1946, he also became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.  Following the Second World War he returned to Aberdeen and became a full physician with charge of wards, incorporating teaching of students.  In the days before the National Health Service all work and teaching by consultants in hospitals was delivered for free. This voluntary work partly served to gain Ian a good reputation, and general practitioners would then refer patients to his then established private practice. Ian was involved in the start of the National Health Service in 1948, and was greatly respected for both his hospital and private practice work.

He continued to research and progress his profession, giving the first full description of Polymyalgia Rheumatica in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases in 1964, discussing the disease course and characteristics, case studies, histology, inflammatory nature and response to corticosteroid treatment.  His work in this field helped establish the illness as a separate disease entity at the time that it was becoming eminently treatable with the discovery of steroids.

At the age of 65 years, he retired from hospital and teaching duties, but continued to do private practice and work in support of the Old People’s Welfare Council for many years.  In addition to his war service in total he served the people of the North East of Scotland as a consultant for 31 years.

Outside of medicine Ian greatly enjoyed salmon and trout fishing and gardening, was interested in wild flowers, and photography and greatly loved spending time with his family.

Awards

Member of the Royal College of Physicians (1936)
Officer commissioning (1938)
Rank of Major and deployment (1939)
Order of the British Empire (1941)
Publication- British Medical Journal 1943

Biography

Royal College of Physicians

Biography prepared from the nomination made by his grand-daughter, Jo Gordon to the University of Aberdeen 525 Alumni project.

John Boyd Orr

1880 - 1971

John Boyd Orr was the founding father of modern nutrition science, the first scientist to show a link between poverty, poor diet and ill health. He was born in Kilmaurs and brought up in West Kilbride.

Boyd Orr graduated from Glasgow University MA, MD and DSc. His work in Aberdeen was interrupted by World War I where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross for his courage in the battle of the Somme. In the Great War of 1914-1918 Boyd Orr’s interest in food meant the men in the trenches under his command remained in better health than their comrades. He made his soldiers collect vegetables from the surrounding fields and boil them up for a nutritious soup.

John Boyd Orr became the first director of the Rowett Institute when it opened in 1922. Studying children at Tarves, Aberdeenshire he showed the value of milk in promoting growth and advised the Government to give it to all school children. His work tackling malnutrition was used by the Government to determine rationing in the Second World War.

Boyd Orr left the Rowett Institute in 1945 to become the first Director General of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation and in 1949 he received the Nobel Peace prize for his work in reducing worldwide hunger and donated all the prize money to organisations concerned with world peace. He was made the first Baron Boyd Orr of Brechin and spent his later years farming near Edzell in Angus. He died in 1971.

He is commemorated by a plaque on the Director's House of the Rowett Institute.

People of the Society

On the walls of buildings throughout Aberdeen are plaques commemorating people who in a variety of ways have contributed to the public good. Thirteen commemorate doctors who remind us of Aberdeen's contribution to medicine over the centuries.

Also worth remembering are the many Aberdeen doctors whose achievements are not commemorated by a plaque:

James Cumyne

James Cumyne in 1497 became the first Professor of Medicine in the English speaking world.

Peter Shepherd

A military surgeon who introduced the concept of civilian first aid.

James Cantlie

With Patrick Manson founded the speciality of tropical medicine.

Matthew Hay

Medical Officer of Health who brought clinical services, teaching and research together on the Foresterhill site.

Mike Tunstall

An Aberdeen anaesthetist who "invented" Entonox, the gas and air mixture that has safely eased the pain of childbirth for millions.

John Mallard

Professor of Medical Physics who invented the MRI scanner.

525 Alumni

In 2020, the University of Aberdeen highlighted the achievements of 525 of their most outstanding alumni from throughout their history.

Alumni nominated by MedChi

Presidents of the Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society

currently listed from 1982 to 2024

Sir Dugald Baird

1899 - 1986

Dugald Baird graduated from Glasgow in 1922. As a student and young doctor in Glasgow he saw the effects of poverty on mothers and babies and this influenced his lifelong interest in social and economic factors in health and disease.

In 1937 he was appointed Regius Professor of Midwifery in Aberdeen. In the three decades he held this post he made major contributions in the fields of clinical practice, service provision and health policy in reproductive health, perinatal and maternal mortality, social obstetrics, sterilisation, induced abortion and cervical screening. He and his wife established the first free family planning clinic in Aberdeen. In 1951 he started the Aberdeen Maternity and Neonatal Databank, which continues today linking all obstetric and fertility related events in women from a defined population.

He was knighted in 1959 and when he retired in 1965 he and his wife were awarded the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen for their contribution to medical science and health in the city and beyond. He is commemorated by a plaque at 38 Albyn Place.