Alexander Paton

Alexander Paton (2 March 1924 – 12 September 2015) was a British gastroenterologist, writer and postgraduate dean for North-West London hospitals, who was a specialist in alcohol misuse.

In 1945, while studying medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, Paton was one of the London medical students who volunteered to go to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp shortly after its liberation by British troops, to assist in administering the "starvation diet" to the severely malnourished and dying inmates.

Paton was one of the first intake of doctors into the British National Health Service and later became a registrar to Sheila Sherlock, a recognised authority on liver disease. In 1959, he was appointed consultant physician to Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham, where he taught medical students for the MRCP, established an endoscopy service and began a 20-year study of the effects of alcoholic liver cirrhosis.

Paton later held consultant positions at the St Ann's Hospital and the Prince of Wales Hospital in North London, and became the first chairman of the medical committee of Alcohol Concern. His book, ABC of Alcohol, went through four editions.

Early life Alexander Paton was born on 2 March 1924 in Allahabad, India. His father, also called Alex, was an army colonel who had been awarded the Military Cross. His mother, Isabel Sybil Emma Grimwood Mears was the daughter of Sir Edward Grimwood Mears, chief justice of the High Court of Allahabad.

After completing his early education at Alleyn Court Prep School, Essex, he gained a scholarship to Canford School in Dorset and subsequently gained admission to study medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London during The Blitz.

Belsen

Paton was one of the London medical students who were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, shortly after its liberation by the British troops, to assist Arnold Peter Meiklejohn in administering what was known as the "starvation diet" to the severely malnourished and dying inmates. Many of these inmates had such advanced malnutrition that they were intolerant of large, highly nutritious meals and the diet comprised small, frequent, bland meals which were much better tolerated.

In his memoirs, published in the British Medical Journal in 1981,

On 28 April, they were informed that the destination had changed to Belsen and they were rushed to Cirencester, where they spent three "frustrating" days. He recalled how the newspapers had already announced that "100 students from nine London medical schools are being rushed to Germany". They arrived in Belsen on 2 May 1945 and on the following day began to clean up the huts in the camp and supervise feeding of inmates. Upon return, he landed at Croydon on 29 May 1945 "with feelings that are too complicated to analyse at the moment". After house officer posts he spent two years' doing national service in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Trieste. Following a post in Salisbury in 1950, and another at St Helier Hospital in 1951, During this post, he kept a private diary in which he wrote about the research into liver disease, saying... "we and anyone else at Hammersmith use subjects for experiments who will not necessarily benefit by them". He quoted his South African houseman as saying "the beds are nothing more than an annexe to the medical laboratories".

He completed his MD at Yale University on the topic of neurology in diabetes mellitus.

On reviewing the book Medical Nemesis by Ivan Illich, he was one of the few reviewers supporting Illich, saying that "his argument is closely reasoned, sometimes obscure, often exasperating, but never dull, and fully documented".

In 1987, he retired and for the next three years worked at the addictions unit at the Warneford Hospital, Oxford.

He played tennis, enjoyed climbing, skiing, walking, classical music, the arts, photography, natural history, church architecture and travelling. He visited Antarctica twice.

Selected publications Paton wrote a number of articles for newspapers, edited work in the British Medical Journal for 50 years and was a member of Stephen Lock's BMJ writing workshops. He also wrote and edited the BMJ's publication ABC of Alcohol, which went through four editions.

His time in Baghdad led him to write about the Marsh Arabs.

Articles

Books Liver Disease. William Heinemann, London, 1969. ABC of Alcohol. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 1982. (Four editions, co-edited with Robin Touquet)