Respected Ninewells consultant who made history

A RESPECTED former senior consultant of pathology at Ninewells Hospital has died aged 85.

Dr John Anderson was a popular clinician and lecturer at Dundee University medical school and took a particular interest in cot death research during a long and distinguished career.

He also made history as a boy when he and his brother Bill became the first Scots to receive the BCG vaccine, which protects against tuberculosis.

Dr Anderson was born in Dundee on August 13 1935, and was the first child of Dr Ben and Clara Anderson.

After school in the 1950s he studied medicine at St Andrews University.

House jobs in Stobhill, Glasgow and Bridge of Earn followed, before he joined the pathology department at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

During his national service he was stationed for an extra six months at Rinteln, Germany, because of a doctor shortage in the Army.

It was there that he met his wife Mary, whose maiden name was Nolan, at the Sergeants’ Mess Christmas Ball in 1961.

They married six months later in Sheffield.

After his National Service, Dr Anderson returned to the pathology department at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, then moved to the Maudsley in London to specialise in neuropathology.

Consultant posts followed briefly in Greenock, before he returned to Stobhill and then Edinburgh, where his research interests included causes of cot death.

A final career move took Dr Anderson to Ninewells where he combined clinical work and research with teaching medical and dental students at Dundee University Medical School.

His hobbies included golf, gardening and attending classical music concerts with Mary.

Dr Anderson was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and spent his final months in Lunardi Court Care Home.

He is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren.