Robert Hunter, Baron Hunter of Newington

Robert Brockie Hunter, Baron Hunter of Newington Kt MBE FRCP FRSE (* July 14, 1915 - March 24, 1994 in Birmingham ) was a British doctor and professor who was Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of Birmingham between 1968 and 1981 and 1978 when Life Peer became a member of the House of Lords under the Life Peerages Act 1958 .

Life

Studies, World War II and university lecturer

Hunter completed after attending George Watson's College in Edinburgh to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh and graduated in 1938 with a Bachelor of Medicine (MB). At the beginning of the Second World War , he began his military service on January 3, 1940 with the rank of lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). At the beginning of military service he was sent to France added and later took in North Africa at the African campaign in part. Most recently, he was promoted to major and between 1944 and 1945 was the personal doctor of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery , the commander in chief of the 21st Army Group in northwestern Europe . On October 9, 1945, he was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his services .

After the war ended, Hunter became a lecturer in therapy at the University of Edinburgh in 1947 , where he worked closely with Professor Derrick Dunlop , who at the time was the leading figure in therapy in Great Britain. There he also received a grant from the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) in medicine.

He then moved to the University of St Andrews as a lecturer in clinical medicine for a short time in 1948 , where he was appointed professor a short time later and was professor at the chair for materia medica , pharmacology and therapy for almost twenty years from 1948 to 1967 . His teaching area was just as early as the therapeutic use of penicillins , streptomycin , corticosteroids , diuretics , blood transfusions and electrolyte infusions . Hexamethonium was first used as a ganglion blocker to effectively treat hypertension , and anticoagulation therapy promised to prevent coronary artery disease . During this time he was also from 1958 to 1962 Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of St Andrews.

Than at the beginning of the 1960s by the drug thalidomide to thalidomide scandal came, he was in 1963 a member of the Committee on Drug Safety Ministry of Health ( Ministry of Health Committee on Safety of Drugs ), where he remained until 1968th The committee, named after Chairman Derrick Dunlop, his former mentor, should ensure that prior to the marketing of a drug by the drug manufacturing company , it should be demonstrated that adequate tests have been carried out to demonstrate its safety and effectiveness. To ensure these measures were taken, he became chairman of the subcommittee on clinical trials, thus helping to solve the new and challenging problems in the way the pharmaceutical industry markets new drugs.

He also became a member of the University Grants Commission of the University of St Andrews in 1964 and also chaired its Medical Advisory Board in 1966.

In 1967 Hunter, who became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in 1964, took over the professorship for materia medica, pharmacology and therapy at the University of Dundee , but only taught there until 1968. Nevertheless, he played a key role in the planning of the 1974 Ninewells Hospital with, one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe .

Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Birmingham and Member of the House of Lords

The Aston Webb building of the University of Birmingham , of which Hunter was Vice Chancellor and Principal from 1968 to 1981

He then became Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Birmingham in 1968 and held these positions until 1981. At the beginning of these activities, as in other parts of Europe, there were student protests and occupations of university buildings at the University of Birmingham , so that the Senate met at the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham . Subsequently, from 1971 onwards there were major cuts in university funding, so that employment contracts could not be extended. The reduction in the number of employees was accompanied by voluntary layoffs and early retirement, which, however, often led to capable employees leaving who could easily find other well-paid jobs. Hunter criticized these cuts because they were ultimately at the expense of the students.

During that time, he also served as a member of the Department of Health and Social Security's Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health between 1973 and 1980 .

Hunter was also named on November 6, 1975 to a deputy lieutenant (DL) of Metropolitan County West Midlands .

On June 11, 1977 Hunter, who was also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP), was beaten to a Knight Bachelor's degree and has since been added to the name "Sir".

Through a letters patent dated July 17, 1978, Hunter was raised to the nobility as a life peer with the title Baron Hunter of Newington , of Newington in the District of the City of Edinburgh, under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and belonged to it until his death House of Lords as a member. Its official introduction ( House of Lords ) took place on July 19, 1978 with the support of John Fulton, Baron Fulton and Arthur Espie Porritt, Baron Porritt . During his membership in the House of Lords, he was a member of its Select Committee on Science and Technology .

In 1984 the University of Liverpool awarded him an honorary doctorate in law .

Publications

• Health service? … Or sickness service? , 1978
• Community physicians-clinical administrators , 1979

Web links

• Robert Hunter at Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• Robert Brockie Hunter, Baron Hunter of Newington, on thepeerage.com , accessed September 12, 2016.
• BBC Your Paintings
• Obituary: Lord Hunter of Newington . In: The Independent of March 30, 1994
• LORD HUNTER OF NEWINGTON (Homepage of the Royal Society of Edinburgh)
• Proof of publication ( Open Library )

Individual evidence

1. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 34891, HMSO, London, July 9, 1940, p. 4159 ( PDF , accessed January 2, 2014, English).
2. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 37302, HMSO, London, October 9, 1945, p. 4993 ( PDF , accessed January 2, 2014, English).
3. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 46730, HMSO, London, November 6, 1975, p. 13990 ( PDF , accessed January 2, 2014, English).
4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 47374, HMSO, London, November 11, 1977, p. 14201 ( PDF , accessed January 2, 2014, English).
5. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 47557, HMSO, London, June 2, 1978, p. 6285 ( PDF , accessed January 2, 2014, English).
6. ↑ London Gazette . No. 47596, HMSO, London, July 20, 1978, p. 8701 ( PDF , accessed January 2, 2014, English).
7. ^ Entry in Hansard (July 19, 1978)
8. ↑ Honorary Graduates of the University of Liverpool  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.