Dr. Pat Hume Kendall

It is with great sadness that we record the tragic death of He passed the examination for the Diploma of Physical Medicine in 1955. In 1957 he was admitted to membership of the Royal College of Physicians of London. In 1960 he was appointed Consultant Physician in Physical Medicine to Guy's Hospital and the Evelina Children's Hospital. Under his guidance the Department at Guy's greatly extended its activities in the next eight years, and came to include a Rehabilitation Unit at New Cross Hospital and a Cerebral Palsy Assessment Unit. Apart from these appointments , he contrived to find time to edit the Annals of Physical Medicine, sit on the Editorial Board of the Clinical Trials Journal, fill the positions of Editorial Representative and Councillor to the Physical Medicine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, Councillor of the British Association of Physical Medicine and examiner for the Diploma of Physical Medicine. Miraculously he still found time inspite of these heavy duties, to carry on a busy private practice, but it was one of his sorrows that too little time was available to pursue his interest in sports medicine. While a student his natural talent and ability to tolerate the most rigorous training schedules led to his achieving great success as a free-style swimmer. He represented England 26 times between 1947 and 1950 including the Olympic Games and captained England at the 1950 Empire Games, where he took a Gold ard two Bronze medals. He retired somewhat prematurely in 1950 when he graduated but retained his interest in swimming and problems associated with competitive athletics. One of his many publications was a chapter on injuries associated with this sport, in "Injury in Sport" In years to come, he will probably be most remembered for his research into the indications and techniques of intra-articular corticosteroid injection therapy but among his more recent research, was a brilliant study of the treatment and aetiology of low back pain. Medicine in general, and Physical Medicine in particular, has suffered a bitter blow with his tragic death.