Glasgow - Royal Infirmary - mid 1960s to present
Glasgow Royal Infirmary- Endocrine Unit
Mary Gardner was sent from the department at the Royal Infirmary in 1960 to organise a laboratory which, until then had been operated by a bacteriology technician. Staff from the Royal Infirmary were seconded for a few months at a time (Bruce Woodger, who was appointed as Consultant Pathologist in Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, in 1956, had been seconded to Belvidere during his training at Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1951). This proved to be a valuable training ground as the laboratory provided a wide range of tests by manual procedures which were becoming automated in the parent laboratory. The workload there rose from 7000 tests per annum in 1960 to 27000 in 1967. This work load was absorbed into that of the Royal Infirmary in 1968. (ref: 11,111)
John (Ian) Leggate was appointed as a technician in 1951, working for ADT Govan. He worked for two years making polio vaccine for Pfizer Ltd. (1957 to 59). He returned as a technician to Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1959 and left in 1960 to study for BSc (graduated 1964) and PhD (under Harry Holms, 1964 to 67) at Glasgow University. Later he was appointed as Lecturer in Aberdeen in 1967 and as Senior Biochemist in Hawkhead Hospital, Paisley in 1970. He was subsequently appointed as Principal Biochemist and Top Grade Biochemist (1975 to 1977). After a period in Kuwait, he was appointed as Top Grade Biochemist at Stobhill General Hospital, Glasgow in 1979 and he retired in 1991. He died in 2015 (ref: 35)
Donald J MacDonald was appointed as Senior Biochemist in 1970 and later took up an appointment in the Rutherglen Maternity Hospital.
Anne J Moffatt was employed in the early 1970s for 18 months to set up some radioimmunoassays. This involved making a pure preparation of the antigen, raising an antibody and using high quantities of radio-iodine. The staff always seemed to be working against the clock to get the assays available. She recalls sitting at a single well gamma counter and counting many test tubes which were all fed by hand: because there was no time available for breaks, she frequently had a sandwich or a Mars bar in the other hand! She left to live in Inverness in 1972 and later worked in Guildford and Worksop. (ref: 133)
Anne M Kelly, who had started her career in Glasgow Victoria Infirmary in 1959 and worked in Glasgow Western Infirmary and was appointed in 1971. She was appointed as Top Grade Biochemistry in Paisley in 1977. She retired in 1997 and became Dr Bell when she married in 1999.
Alan Belfield from Gartnavel General Hospital (1972 to 1975) and Glasgow Royal Infirmary (1975 to 1978) was appointed as Principal Biochemist in 1978. He was appointed as Top Grade Biochemist at Wexham Park Hospital, Slough, in 1985 and retired in 2000.
M Hazel Carse, who'd been appointed in 1983, was appointed as a Senior Biochemist in the Royal Infirmary in the mid-1980s.
Philip England, who died in the mid 1980s, was a Senior Biochemist in the late 1970s.
Derek Pledger, who came from Liverpool, was a Senior Biochemist in the late 1970s and in the Royal Infirmary in the early 1980s. He took up an appointment as Principal Biochemist in Dewsbury in 1985 and Top Grade Biochemist in Ipswich in 1991.
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Last updated July 2015