Tony Dornhorst

Professor Antony Clifford Dornhorst CBE, FRCP (1915-2003), known as Tony, was a British physician and medical educator, described by The Guardian as "one of the outstanding academic clinician-scientists of his generation".[1]

Dornhorst was born on 2 April 1915 in Woodford, Essex.[1] His father was a company director of Dutch descent; his mother a musician.[1]

He was educated at St Clement Danes School, but did not attend school between the ages of 12 and 14.[1] He subsequently studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School.[1] At the age of 23, he became the youngest ever member of the Royal College of Physicians.[1]

He served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War II, in Palestine, north Africa, Italy, and as the senior physician in Berlin, with the rank of lieutenant colonel.[1] It was in Berlin that he met Helen, a Royal Army Medical Corps radiologist, who was to become his wife.[1]

He was appointed a reader in medicine at St Thomas's in 1949 and became a consultant there in 1951.[1]

He held the foundation chair of medicine at St George's Hospital Medical School from 1959 to 1980.[1]

Serving on the Himsworth committee on matters relating to Northern Ireland, he once inhaled CS gas to better understand its effects.[1]

He was a member of the Medical Research Council from 1973 to 1977.[2]

He was made a Commander of the Order of British Empire (CBE) in 1977, as part of the Silver Jubilee and Birthday Honours.[3]

He died on 9 March 2003.[1]