Dr Geoffrey Watkinson, leading gastro-enterologist: born May 12, 1921, died February 20, 1996
DR GEOFFREY Watkinson, MB, FRCP, who died at Bannockburn Hospital this week after a long illness, was a world authority on gastro-enterology. He was 74.
A former president and secretary of both the British Society of Gastro-enterology and the World Society (Organisation Mondiale de Gastroenterologie), he was a consultant at Glasgow Western Infirmary, Southern General, and Gartnavel General Hospitals when he retired in 1986.
He lived latterly in retirement at Tillicoultry.
Coming to Glasgow from York in 1968, Dr Watkinson had been senior lecturer at Leeds University while at the general hospital there, and prior to that spent a year at the Mayo Clinic on a Rockefeller scholarship. This followed service in the RAF as a medical specialist in the last months of the Second World War. He qualified in 1943 at St Bartholomew's where he held junior posts.
Soon after moving to Glasgow he was awarded the first Bushell Scholarship which saw him undertake a three-month lecture tour of Australia and New Zealand.
The jubilee supplement of Gut, the journal of the British Society of Gastro-enterology said his ``intellect, application, commanding presence, courtesy and erudition . . . wholehearted devotion to clinical practice, teaching and organisation . . . gave him an influential role throughout the world''. He was, said the supplement, both an outstanding clinical gastro-enterologist of his generation and a pivotal figure in delicate diplomacy between national societies.
A former colleague, Dr Gerard Crean, a former president of the BSG, said Dr Watkinson was a formative influence on the development of gastro-enterology.
Until moving to Tillicoultry three years ago, Dr Watkinson and his family lived in Blanefield. He enjoyed listening to music, especially opera.
A native of Bolton he is survived by his wife, Marie, a son and daughter, both married, and six grandchildren.
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