Obituary - Dr Gordon Charles McDonald Paterson

Gordon Paterson has died peacefully at home aged 92 years surrounded by his family and cared for ably by his devoted wife, Jane. 

Dr Paterson was a highly respected Consultant Anaesthetist and gifted administrator at the Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics (NDA), University of Oxford.

He was born into a medical family; his father held senior surgical posts in Darlington and Birkenhead and his mother was a nurse. Sadly, Gordon’s mother developed severe rheumatoid arthritis and quickly became disabled, requiring frequent hospital admissions. During this time Gordon lived happily with his grandmother and aunts in Penygroes, Snowdonia where he attended a Welsh primary school and learned to speak Welsh, which he spoke fluently all his life. He then moved to Scunthorpe Grammar School where he excelled at languages and planned to study these at university. However, when his father was dying in 1949, he asked Gordon to change to sciences. On leaving grammar school after A- levels, Gordon was awarded a State Scholarship, this supported his education at Edinburgh University where he read medicine, graduating MB CHB in 1957.

In 1958 he joined the Royal Navy as Surgeon Lieutenant RN, leaving in 1961 but retained his connection with the Royal Naval Reserve. He received a Reserve Decoration in 1982. That same year he was seconded to Belize to replace serving medical officers needed for the Falklands campaign. He left the Navy in 1991 as Surgeon Lieutenant Commander RN.

Gordon came to Oxford NDA in 1963 as SHO and with rapid promotion became Consultant Anaesthetist in 1972, retiring from Oxford in 2000. He continued to work in locum appointments in various hospitals in both England and Scotland until 2012

As a clinical anaesthetist Dr Paterson was highly skilled and meticulous and a source of reassurance to all around him; he was kind and helpful to the trainees working with him. 

In addition, his administrative ability proved invaluable to the NDA particularly in the arrangement of teaching courses in anaesthesia specialisms. These courses covered regional anaesthesia, pain and anaesthesia in developing countries, for visiting anaesthetists and trainees, some from overseas. This also included arranging their accommodation and travel where necessary, along with many other tasks, not least arranging course dinners in college, from his black book of helpful college bursars! He himself lectured and demonstrated on some of these courses.

Dr Paterson fostered a close relationship with Dr G Jackson Rees at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital making it possible for Oxford trainees to be sent to the hospital for a period of training in paediatric anaesthesia. 

Dr Paterson’s publications included papers on “Evaluation of vaporiser performance”; “Cardiovascular effects of increased intracranial pressure” “Pharmacokinetics of narcotic analgesics in general and spinal anaesthesia”. He also contributed chapters on thoracic anaesthesia and local anaesthesia for anaesthesia textbooks. He was a member of many anaesthesia societies and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and Member of Council for the Section of Anaesthesia. Gordon was a Royal College Assessor on Advisory Appointments Committees for Consultant Anaesthetists and Member of the Advisory Committees on Distinction Awards for the Oxford Region and Royal College of Anaesthetists. 

Gordon met his wife Jane on a skiing holiday in 1972. They married in Hong Kong in 1980 and had four children, Angus, Jennie, Olivia and Ione and seven grandchildren. He was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather and made all aspects of family life interesting and fun. He had a delightfully witty sense of humour!

He will be sadly missed by family, friends and colleagues alike. 

Dr Alan Loach