Derek Crowther

bmj;386/jul15_10/q1532/FAF1faDerek Crowther, charismatic and endearingly irrepressible, was one of the founding fathers of medical oncology in the UK. He spent his early years in Ruislip, but left London in 1942 for the safety of Durham.He later obtained a scholarship to the City of London School and thence to Clare College, Cambridge, where he graduated in natural sciences in 1959. Virology was a great interest and following the award of a Fulbright scholarship, and newly married, he travelled to Houston, Texas, with his wife, Margaret. Here he spent 12 months in the laboratories of Joseph Melnick at Baylor College of Medicine, studying the growth of poliovirus. This experience imbued a lifelong love of the US and Americans, whose enthusiasm he greatly admired.In 1968 Derek became chief assistant to Ronald Bodley-Scott, the Queen’s physician, at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He made his mark with a 1970 publication showing the effectiveness of chemotherapy for…
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