Peter Copeman

Peter William Monckton Copeman FRCS (9 April 1932 – 13 July 2018) was an English dermatologist known as "Dr Spot" by his colleagues. He was consultant physician at Westminster Hospital and consulting dermatologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He treated many celebrities and also helped modernise Qatar’s medical services. He authored over a hundred peer-reviewed articles and pioneered research on allergic vasculitis and melanoma.

Outside medicine, he co-founded the Game Conservancy, where he arranged the regeneration of the British grey partridge.

Early life Peter Copeman was born in London on 9 April 1932, the son of William Copeman CBE, a pioneering rheumatologist, and his wife Helen. His grandfather was Sydney Copeman who worked on the refinement of Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccine.

He was brought up in Hampstead and educated at Rottingdean Preparatory School in East Sussex, which was evacuated to the Cornish countryside during the Second World War. Subsequently, he attended Eton College, where he demonstrated skill at shooting and during his final year, was captain of the Eton shooting eight at Bisley. Subsequently, he travelled to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where he worked alongside Terence Ryan and eminent Dutch dermatologist Rudi Cormane.

In 1965, at a time when leading surgeon Harold Ellis was at Westminster Hospital, Copeman, frequently known as "Dr Spot" by his colleagues, was appointed consultant physician.

Until retirement, he was a consulting dermatologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London

Death Copeman died due to a series of strokes.

Selected publications "The Problems of Classification of Cutaneous Angitis with Reference to Histopathology and Pathogenesis", British Journal of Dermatology, Vol. 82, Supplement 5 (May 1970). (With T. J. Ryan) "Investigations into the Pathogenesis of Acute Cutaneous Angitis", British Journal of Dermatology, Vol. 82, Supplement 5 (May 1970), pp. 51–65. "Immunofluorescence of Cutaneous Vasculitis Associated With Systemic Disease", Archives of Dermatology, Vol. 104 (1971), No. 3, pp. 254–259. (With Arnold L. Schroeter and Robert E. Jordon) "Beekeepers' dermatitis: contact allergy to beeswax, beesglue (propolis) and Royal Jelly", British Journal of Dermatology, Vol. 109, Issue S24 (July 1983), p. 97. (With J. I. Harper)