Clinical Oneology (1989) 1:117 © 1990 The Royal College of Radiologists Clinical

Oncology

Obituary

DR HUGH THOMLINSON

Hugh Thomlinson was born in Brodsworth, a small village near Doncaster. His father was a mining engineer who had special responsibility for mineral rights of some of the great estates of the north of England. He made many journeys into the Dales, often taking young Hugh along and this gave him a love of Yorkshire that lasted his whole lifetime. He had planned to retire to Gunnerside in Swaledale to a couple of broken-down cottages largely restored to modern use by his own hand. It is sad that the final realization of his dream coincided with his death.

Hugh was educated at Rugby, King's College Cambridge and St Thomas' where he qualified in 1946. After service in the RAMC he became lecturer in pathology and assistant curator of the museum at St Thomas' and these posts developed his powers of accurate and meticulous observation which remained the guiding principles of his scientific life.

At St Thomas' he became interested in the possible clinical use of hyperbaric oxygen in cancer and worked with Churchill- Davidson in the early studies. However, the turning point in his life probably occurred at a famous dinner party given by Oliver Scott at which the late L, H. Gray was present. The vista of trying to co-relate radiation damage of tumour cells with their oxygen supply filled his horizon_ He joined the external staff of the Medical Research Council at Hammersmith Hospital working in the Experimental Radiobiology Research Unit directed by Dr Popjak. Close co-operation with Gray continued and their views were summed up in a joint paper published in the British Journal of Cancer in 1955 entitled 'Histological Structure of some Human Lung Cancers and possible implications for Radiother- apy'. This work was a milestone and has been quoted extensively ever since.

Hugh Thomlinson was happy at Hammersmith. There was a group of like-minded people such as Tikva Alper and Shirley Hornsey and others, always ready for an argument and at home with the disputatious style that Hugh enjoyed and from which new possible research lines take origin. These early years were most enjoyable as the quality and style of the published papers bear witness.

The brilliant engineering work of Vonberg's team at Ham- mersmith had shown that improvements in cyclotron design made clinically practicable neutron beams available for the first time. It fell to Hugh to carry out some of the basic radiobiological work on the neutron project and, in conjunction with the late Roly Morgan, to try and determine those tumour groups likely to benefit from their therapeutic use. With the departure of Morgan for the Royal Marsden, Hugh became increasingly troubled by the direction the neutron project was taking; the conflict between the perceived clinical need for the publication of work

in progress, albeit at an early stage, and his own insistence on rigidly controlled and observed results, was never resolved and his departure from Hammersmith had its own inevitability.

Hugh's arrival at Mount Vernon in 1974 signalled a change in interest. For years he had become almost obsessed by the need for the careful measurement of tumour size before, during and after treatment and with the increasing use of cytotoxic drugs in breast cancer, he found the perfect field for his talents. 'First agree on the measuring instruments you are going to use, then observe and measure responses thousands of times and record, record, record until, hopefully, patterns of tumour behaviour emerge'.

With the devoted help of Ann Johnson and a small team the effect of single agent cancer chemotherapy on breast malignancy was minutely documented and this work was recognized by the Royal College of Radiologists awarding him its Fellowship in 1977 and the invitation to deliver the Skinner Lecture on 'Measurement and Management of Carcinoma of the Breast' in 1981.

Hugh Thomlinson retired from clinical radiobiology in 1987; he had remained on the staff of the Medical Research Council and they had the wisdom to understand that Hugh was sui generis and operated best if control from the centre was loose_

Hugh was a complex character. At one level his calmness, his urbanity, his measured walk and precise speech and manner, combined with a dry but incisive humour made him the textbook Englishman and accounted, in part, for his popularity in Amer- ica as the British archetype. Yet this was only one side of his nature. Hugh was a member of that rare breed and declining species, the honest man, intolerant of intellectual compromise and impatient of 'unscientific' clinicians; such sensitive people are vulnerable and Hugh was no exception. He would, I think, have been happiest in fifteenth century renaissance Italy. There he would have found a benevolent princely protector, who would have recognized a polymath when he saw one and have given him full rein. As it was, Hugh was content to climb mountains, carve wood, love gardens and music and making things - a truly happy m a n .

As a teacher and as a host, Hugh was supreme. Many will recall evenings spent in his converted hayloft - converted, of course, by himself - drinking wine and listening to chamber music with Hugh smiling at everyone.

To his charming wife, Shelagh, we extend our deepest sympathy.

PAUL STRICKLAND