Middlemiss, Sir (John) Howard (1916-1983)

J H Middlemiss, born 14 May 1916, educated at Repton, qualified in medicine from Durham University in 1940; he then served in the RAMC in Normandy and India, reaching the rank of lieutenant-colonel. After the War he specialised in radiology, initially in Newcastle, gaining postgraduate DMRD and MD qualifications, and then becoming Director of Radiology for Bristol Hospitals in 1949. He was appointed to a personal Chair of Radiology at Bristol in 1966, a post he held until retirement in 1981.

He was involved in the Faculty of Radiologists from 1949 when he became a Fellow, and worked towards its achievement of becoming the Royal College of Radiologists, of which he was first President, 1975, and awarded its Gold Medal in 1982. He also conceived and administered the European qualification in radiology.

His major achievements, however, related to the the development of radiology in the developing countries following his first visit to Africa in 1953. Not only did he train many radiologists and technicians at Bristol who then introduced similar programmes into their own countries, he played a significant part in the creation of training in medical schools and the introduction of postgraduate courses in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. With the World Health Organization he was actively involved in the development of less expensive and more reliable radiographic equipment for the tropics.

In 1961 he published Tropical Radiology and later co-authored Clinical Radiology In The Tropics, which he arranged to be sold for nearly half-price to those practicing in the developing world. He was also editor of the Textbook of Radiology by British authors.

His many honours included the CMG (1968), FRCP (1972), FRCS (1976) and a knighthood (1981).

He died suddenly on 27 Apr 1983.

Obituaries appeared in the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, Radiology , and The Times, and there are entries in Munk's Roll of the Royal College of Physicians Vol VII, and Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons.