Neil McIntyre died peacefully the evening of Sunday July 19th 2020, the year of the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. McIntyre was born in Ferndale, Wales and was very proud to be Welsh. He studied medicine at King’s College London and was a houseman in King’s College and the Hammersmith Hospitals. Two years national service were spent in Aden with the Royal Air Force. In 1963 he joined the Medical Unit of the Royal Free Hospital under the leadership of the legendary Dame Sheila Sherlock. As Lecturer in Medicine he supervised the Unit’s beds at the old Lawn Road (Hampstead) branch of the Royal Free Hospital. While there he experimented with the newly discovered insulin assays. He found that the insulin response to an oral glucose load was significantly greater than the response to intravenous glucose. This was a seminal discovery and one of the foundations on which the study of gut hormones was established.
Between 1966 and 1968 Neil was a MRC Travelling Fellow at the Gastrointestinal Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University. He returned to the Royal Free as Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Physician in 1968. He was awarded a personal chair in 1979 and succeeded Prof. Dame Sheila Sherlock as Chairman of the Academic Department of Medicine and Head of the Liver Unit at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. He wrote and coauthored several books including the comprehensive Oxford textbook of Clinical Hepatology which he edited and coauthored with the most famous European hepatologists at the time. He was a complete scholar in Medical sciences with wide interests and significant contributions in liver physiology, biochemistry, metabolism, medical education and medical history. He was outstanding when there was a time for scientific analysis and dialectic exchange. He made important contributions to the field in areas like carbohydrate metabolism, lipids and cell membranes, amino acids and urea metabolism and the use of problem oriented medical records. He published over 200 scientific articles with over 6202 citations and an h index of 40. He taught hundreds of medical students, and mentored a large number of national and foreign graduate and PhD students. He was a visiting Professor at many Universities around the world and examined overseas candidates for medical degrees.
With Drs. Andy Burroughs and Keith Rolles, Prof. McIntyre helped establish the definitive Liver transplant program thus securing the future of the Royal Free as an international center of reference. He took the task of modernizing the Liver unit and supported new lines of research in molecular biology, nutrition, interventional endoscopy and radiology, drug delivery systems and immunology among others and led the Department of Medicine and the Liver unit through the difficult merger of the Royal Free Hospital school of Medicine with the University College Hospital School of Medicine. He organized, promoted and actively participated in the academic and research program of the Liver Unit and attended all American and European liver meetings and other liver meetings around the world. He continued hosting the famous annual liver update meeting established by Dr. Sherlock at the Royal Free where the most recognized world liver experts were invited to lecture. He was most gracious to participate in international gatherings of ex Royal Free liver unit fellows like those in Naples and Guadalajara (Mexico) to mention a few.
He continued the golden era of the liver unit with renowned specialists like Andy Burroughs, Roy Pounder, James Dooley, Pramod Mistry, Aiden McCormick, Graham Kaye, John Summerfield, Geoff Dusheiko, Marsha Morgan and others and continued hosting the participation of Professor Dame Sheila Sherlock at the Clinical Grand rounds.
Neil was very interested in medical education and held several positions at the Medical school. He was an innovator and supported the use of Problem oriented medical records having met with their creator Lawrence Weed and was an “enthusiastic with the use of personal computers” in medicine introducing them in each laboratory of the liver unit.
Neil was a member and held positions in many learned societies including the Royal College of Physicians, the Medical research society, the European association for the study of the liver, the International association for the study of the liver, the British Society of Gastroenterology, the British association for the study of the liver, the Association for the study of Medical education and several societies for the history of Medicine. He was also member of journal committees and editorial boards of Clinical Science, Journal of Hepatology, Gut and the Scandinavian journal of Gastroenterology.
Prof. McIntyre was also a keen medical historian and a major contributor to the Journal of Medical Biography. Prof D. Geraint James, eminent respiratory physician, proud fellow Welshman and husband of Dame Sheila Sherlock introduced Neil to the Osler Club for the history of Medicine and to the Athenaeum club for intellectuals. He later served as president of the Osler Club. Members of the liver unit will fondly remember Neil’s illustrated lectures on medical statues. These were lively occasions, usually in early summer and accompanied by ample portions of strawberries and cream. One of his major projects, completed after retirement, described and documented the history of the London school of Medicine for women, the first English university to accept women in Medical school, which later became the Royal Free Hospital School of medicine. His later wife, Dr. Wendy Kelsey studied there, as did their daughter Waveney.
He loved cricket which he played since schooldays and he also loved golf which he played most weeks until 6–7 years before his death. He would practice anytime, anywhere –in the garden, in the office, in the bedroom!
Neil was an avid reader staying awake until late hours. He liked reading almost anything and he would read detective thrillers for lighter reading. He was a collector of photographs of medical statues. He would travel, frequently accompanied by his wife Wendy, many miles in many countries searching for them.
Neil was a devoted family man taking a deep interest in the activities of his children, grandchildren and nephews, never missing an opportunity to pass on some nugget of knowledge.
He retired in 1999 to become Emeritus Professor at the Royal Free and University College London School of Medicine.
Prof. Neil McIntyre was an absolute gentleman. He embodied the ethos of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and the Liver unit. He will be fondly remembered by the Royal Free alumni, the global liver community and by thousands of patients and students that had the opportunity to meet him and call him “my British Professor”.
We thank Wendy McIntyre for her sharing of Prof. McIntyre’s works, records, photographs and personal memories.
