JAC Advance Access originally published online on August 10, 2005
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2005 56(4):607-608; doi:10.1093/jac/dki300
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Appreciation |
Professor John David Williams, 3rd March 1931–11th July 2005
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John David Williams, known to the world of microbiology as ‘JD’ or simply David, formerly Goldsmiths' Professor of Microbiology at The London Hospital Medical College, died peacefully in Saint Bartholomew's Hospital on Monday 11th July. He was 74. Without him, the specialty of Medical Microbiology in Great Britain today and even beyond its shores would have been very different and the public might well not have had the benefit of the services of many of the microbiologists to whom they must now turn to prevent MRSA and other serious infections in our hospitals.
His achievements were entirely the result of his own endeavours. He was born and brought up in Douglas, Isle of Man. At primary school his academic abilities were so obvious to his fellow pupils that they nick named him prophetically ‘Prof’. He went to Liverpool as a young man where he worked as a laboratory technician and studied for his A levels at night school. Having obtained them he was accepted as a medical student at Liverpool University from which he qualified as a doctor in 1956.
After his pre-registration year he served 3 years in the army. Posted to Germany he departed for the continent from Victoria station, but before doing so he was informed on the platform that he was ‘OC Train’. "Just enjoy the private first class compartment," he was told, "and give these papers to the officer who meets you at Dover." He enjoyed the journey, but there was no one at Dover to meet him. He ran up and down the platform with an increasing sense of desperation. Leaving it to the very last minute, papers still clutched in his hand, he dashed to the Calais ferry. Halfway across the channel he threw the papers into the sea.
Back in Britain as a civilian in 1960 he resumed his medical career, and after three and a half years at Edgware Hospital, where his interest in antibiotics was forged, he moved as a consultant to Dudley Road Hospital in Birmingham where he stayed from 1965 to 1974 when he became Professor at the London Hospital Medical College where he remained for the next 22 years. These two appointments gave him the platform he needed to demonstrate his enormous talent.
His knowledge of antibiotics was encyclopaedic and young doctors came from all over the world to study and attend postgraduate courses in his department. But it is not for this that he will principally be remembered. He had a vision of Medical Microbiology not as a dry academic specialty confined to the laboratory, a minor subspecialty in the field of pathology, but as an important medical specialty, which married laboratory and clinical skills. Others shared his vision, but only he had the drive to turn it into a reality. This he achieved through the foundation of a trio of microbiological societies, The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC), The Hospital Infection Society (HIS) and The Association of Medical Microbiologists (AMM). Together they form the Federation of Infection Societies. Of course, he did not do this on his own, but he put the teams together to run them, recruited the members, and drove the projects forward. He never appeared as the founding President; he was always the Secretary. There was never a hint of a desire for recognition or self-glorification. He did it for ‘Microbiology’. The BSAC and HIS are now world leaders in their field and there is hardly a medical library in the world that does not carry their journals, which again he founded. Without him they probably would not have existed.
He had a way of getting people to help him. He seemed to recognize their talents and he persuaded them to develop their skills and exploit them, and they were happy to do so.
Just founding these Societies was not enough for him. He wanted them to be vibrant and successful. The meetings he organized were. He had a knack of spotting subjects that were at the cutting edge, subjects that gripped the imagination of doctors young and old and they flocked to hear the speakers he assembled from around the world. For over 30 successive years he organized the annual ‘Topics of Infection’ meetings in London. Every one was oversubscribed by infectious disease physicians and microbiologists. To be asked to speak was a privilege.
He did not confine his skills to Great Britain. He became a major figure on the international stage. He was Secretary General and later President of the International Society of Chemotherapy and served on the editorial boards of at least ten European journals. He was known from Paris to Peking, from Moscow to Milan. He had honorary posts in the University of Bialystock and the University of Beijing.
He revelled in the company of microbiologists, whether he was meeting them professionally or socially. He was always the first person to visit a sick colleague, always ready to help a friend in trouble. The last organization he founded was the Infection Forum, a luncheon club for retired microbiologists who had contributed to the specialty. "Don't let them stop meeting when I have gone," he said. "They enjoy each others' company too much."
He helped to take Microbiology from the laboratory bench to the bedside and he will be greatly missed.
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