John Alexander Simpson

Iain, who came from a long Scottish lineage which includes the famous eighteenth-century political cartoonist James Gillray, is a good example of serendipity and major advances in science. It was while he held a Medical Research Council travelling fellowship at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London in 1960 that he observed the increased association of the neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis, in which the muscles become progressively paralysed, with other conditions. He published his hypothesis in the Scottish Medical Journal, and this work can be regarded as the seminal paper which directed research into the immunological causes of myasthenia gravis. It was logical, therefore, that he should further this interest in a department of neurology where the main research focus was muscle diseases.

At the time he became head of the department there had been enormous changes in the structure of neuroscience in Scotland, with the newly organised Institute of Neurological Sciences being formed at Glasgow, to which Bryan Jennett, professor of neurosurgery, and Hume Adams, professor of neuropathology, were the other main contributors. Iain had come from Edinburgh, where he had been chief of neurology. There, he had built up an active department with a sound reputation. It was obvious that he was ideally equipped to develop neurology in Glasgow and his department became a showpiece in 1967 for the International Congress of Electromyelography.

This was the first of many occasions where Iain and his wife Elizabeth would generously entertain visiting neurologists and other neuroscientists. Indeed, Iain's kindness to obscure authors often had grateful individuals plan their journey so that it included a visit to Glasgow.

He was appointed the James Watson Lecturer of the Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, a Honeyman Gillespie Lecturer at Edinburgh, an Abbott Lecturer at Newcastle and later a fellow of the Royal Society at Edinburgh. Among further appointments was that of honorary consultant neurologist to the army and to the civil service commission, chairmanship of the Scottish Council for the Neurological Services and of the Scottish Epilepsy Association, and membership of the Research Committee of the Muscular Dystrophy Group of Great Britain.

Iain was a good general physician and wrote and studied not only on myasthenia gravis, on which he was an esteemed national authority, but many other conditions. He was in demand to give a number of guest lectures and accepted invitations to visit departments throughout Australia, India, Europe and Japan, as well as contributing to now-classic textbooks of muscle and neurological disease and peer-reviewing several journals. He had more than 94 original papers on neuromuscular neurological diseases published.

He looked after his patients well, keeping in contact with several for many years. He was a kind, caring, decent fellow and it was an honour to be considered one of his friends. He delighted in making a solid and sound diagnosis of extremely rare diseases and imparted this knowledge to his students. Patients with myasthenia gravis could expect to see him at any time of the day or night, taking as he did a personal interest in the surgical and neurological outcome of their treatment.

Iain's family continue the medical tradition. He leaves behind two sons, Keith and Neill, who are both physicians, and a daughter, Guendolen, an ICU nurse. He was a proud grandfather to his nine grandchildren.

No account of Iain would be complete without describing his addiction to and pleasure in sailing and Scottish fiddle music. He once told me that, for him, the greatest pleasure was drinking hot soup followed by a large quantity of malt whisky after a successful sail.

Iain left behind a department in excellent health, and his advice and warm friendship will be sadly missed. By Peter O Behan