Psychiatric Bulletin (2002) 26: 438-439. doi: 10.1192/pb.26.11.438
© 2002 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Psychiatric Bulletin (2002) 26: 438-439
© 2002 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Gwyn Roberts
Former Professor of Learning Disability, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham
David Wilson
Professor Gwyn Roberts was a thoughtful, caring doctor of considerable
ability, which he used to improve the quality of life for people with learning
difficulties. He was witty and wise, erudite, innovative and always reassuring
and supportive. He was a team builder who inspired great loyalty and affection
from his colleagues. He desired change for the benefit of his patients and
their families but was always realistic about what could be achieved. Despite
his dry humour, he was a quiet and contemplative person, in many ways
understated and at times troubled by self-doubt. However, he will be
remembered as a leader and an enabler who made a lasting impression in his
field.
Gwyn Roberts was born in 1933 and brought up in North Wales (with Welsh as
his first language). He went on to train at the Welsh National School of
Medicine in Cardiff where he graduated in 1956. After qualifying he worked at
Whitchurch Hospital and gained the DPM in 1961. He then worked at Great Ormond
Street Children's Hospital, researching inborn errors of metabolism. After
further research and clinical experience at Oxford, he moved to Cambridge in
1965 to commission the Ida Darwin Hospital, in its day a progressive
establishment for the care of children and adults with learning disabilities.
Using a multi-disciplinary approach, Gwyn helped change attitudes and set new
standards for these most vulnerable of people. Perhaps his greatest gift was
his gentle, unpatronising manner with patients and their families, to whom he
always listened so carefully.
In 1971, he was a major contributor to the Government White Paper
Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped. Subsequently, he was
appointed to lead the first Government Hospital Advisory Service team, which
visited hospitals across the country to improve standards of care. Locally, he
identified a need for, and created, the Child Development Centre, one of the
first of its kind in the country.
In 1995, Gwyn left the Ida Darwin to take up the first Chair of Learning
Disabilities at the University of Nottingham. Here, he set about the
complicated and overdue task of reshaping clinical services as well as
establishing his new department. He attracted high quality researchers and
inspired several trainees from the area postgraduate psychiatry training
scheme to specialise in learning disabilities. Beyond the department, he
shared his knowledge of medical ethics and made an important contribution
towards building academic chairs in other parts of the UK. He also served on
numerous committees for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, of which he was a
Fellow, and was medical advisor to MENCAP for many years.
Soon after his retirement he developed colonic cancer from which, after a
long illness, he died on 11 January 2002. Gwyn was first and foremost a family
man and he is survived by his wife Sheila (Kidd), a fellow medical student to
whom he was married for 43 years. He also leaves a son, a daughter (a
community paediatrician) and two grandchildren.
