Leslie Witts

Leslie John Witts (1898–1982) was a British physician and pioneering haematologist.

Biography L. J. Witts received secondary education at Boteler Grammar School, where he won in 1916 a scholarship to the University of Manchester. During WWI when he reached the age of 18 he joined the Inns of Court Officers Training Corps and then the Royal Field Artillery. Serving on the western front, he suffered a leg wound and was invalided back to civilian life. From 1919 to 1923 he studied at the University of Manchester, graduating there MB ChB in 1923. After house appointments, he became Dickinson travelling scholar of the University of Manchester and graduated there in 1926 with his higher MD thesis on blood research. he was appointed in 1933 a full physician and in 1935 a professor of medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Witts wrote about his opinions on medicine as ‘Doctor Don’ in 1939 in The Lancet and, years later, in the ‘Personal Views’ series in the British Medical Journal.

He was appointed CBE in 1959. Under the auspices of the Royal College of Physicians, he delivered in 1961 the Lumleian Lectures on Some aspects of the pathology of anaemia and in 1971 the Harveian Oration on The medical professorial unit.

In 1929 in Cambridge he married Nancy Grace Salzman (1907–1992), younger daughter of the historian Louis Francis Salzman. When L. J. Witts died in 1982 he was survived by his widow, one son, three daughters, and ten grandchildren.

Selected publications Articles

(Harveian Oration)

Books