Alistair Paterson

MBChB, FRCS, Distinguished neurosurgeon Born: November 5, 1917 Died: July 20, 2015

ALISTAIR Paterson, who has died aged 97, was an eminent surgeon whose work helped shape the development of neurosurgery and neurology in Scotland during the 20th Century.

Recognised as one of the leaders in his field, he became head of neurosurgery at Glasgow University’s Institute of Neurological Sciences from its formal establishment in 1970 until his retirement in 1984.

His greatest accomplishments were achieved in the days before MRI and CAT scans opened the door to far more accurate, and easier , methods of diagnosis. Alistair Paterson was of a generation of surgeons who relied less on technology and more on knowledge, speed of thought, dexterity and, in his case in particular, an almost intuitive sense of how the brain worked.

He was also a gifted teacher who, over his lengthy career, was responsible for the training of neurosurgeons from across the world.

Alistair Paterson was born in Dennistoun, Glasgow, to Thomas Paterson, an electrical engineer, and his wife Mary. He had one younger brother, Robert, who also became a doctor.

Educated at Whitehill School, he looked destined to become a classics scholar. However, in his fourth year at secondary school he changed direction and managed to get the necessary qualifications to gain a place at Glasgow University’s school of medicine from where he graduated MBChB in 1940.

That same year he took up a post as House Surgeon to Sir Charles Illingworth at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow. A year later, however, his hospital career was interrupted when he received his call-up papers.

From November, 1941, till January, 1946, he served as regimental medical officer for the 1st Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regiment. He saw active duty in the Italian campaign and was mentioned in dispatches on the Anzio beaches. It was while serving in Italy that he met – and helped saved the life of – the the British film director Michael Curtis. The pair became firm friends and there began a lengthy association between the two families. Indeed, Mr Paterson’s future wife, Elspeth,whom he married in 1947, was PA to Mr Curtis.

In January, 1946, he resumed civilian life and returned to the Western as surgi- cal registrar. The following year he began to specialise in neurosurgery, first at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Neurosurgical Unit in Killearn Hospital. In 1950, he moved to London when he was first assistant at the renowned Department of Neurosurgery in the Atkinson Morley Hospital near Wimbledon.

In 1954 he spent a year in Canada working both at a hospital in Montreal and as a demonstrator in neurosurgery at the city’s McGill University. On his return to London he took up several appointments, one of them at the Sick Children’s Hospital in Great Ormond Street, before briefly working in Sweden.

Over the ensuing years, Mr Paterson developed the international teaching side of his career with lecturing appointments in the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Iran and South Africa. He also wrote extensively on his area of expertise and was heavily involved in research into neurology and neurosurgery.

However, in professional terms, Alistair Paterson will be best remembered for his work at Killearn and, from 1970, at Glasgow University’s Neurological Institute.

He combined his immense gift as a surgeon and his powerful intellect with a thoughtful approach to his patients, never forgetting that they and their families were real people.

Retirement from the institute in 1984 was not the end of Alistair Paterson’s medical career. He continued as the institute’s honorary clinical teacher until 1989 and also served as a medical advisor to the Ministry of Defence and, from March, 1985, until May, 1986, as professor of neurosurgery at King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In the 1990s, he ran the pain clinic at the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow. He also found time to study at the Open University, graduating with a BA Hons degree in Economics and Politics.

In retirement, he and Elspeth, who predeceased him, lived in Blanefield. They had no children.