Herbert Spencer - Obituaries
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer, Professor of Morbid Anatomy at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London, from 1965 to 1980, died on June 1 1993 aged 78. He was born on February 8, 1915.
Herbert Spencer was an internationally renowned authority in the pathology of the lung and was the author of the standard work on the subject. At St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, where he was on the academic staff for thirty years he was respected by generations of students for his lucid expositions of his subject.
The son of Herbert and Edith Maude Spencer he was educated at Highgate School and St Mary's Hospital Medical School, Paddington, where he was also a Houseman. In due course he became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, of the Royal College of Surgeons and of the Royal College of Pathologists, all of which, in addition to his PhD and MD degrees, gave him an extraordinarily wide medical background.
But it was pathology which really engaged his interest and when, in 1942, he was drafted into the Royal Army Medical Corps it was to pursue this speciality. He served in Iraq, Iran and Egypt until 1947, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and eventually taking charge of all pathology services in the Middle East. After the war he joined the pathology service for the Archway group of Hospitals. This experience conclusively persuaded him to dedicate himself to academic medicine and his chosen speciality of lung pathology rather than pursue a career as a surgeon. He was appointed Senior Lecturer at St Thomas's Hospital and subsequently rose to reader and ultimately Professor of Morbid Anatomy. In 1957, he spent six months as a visiting professor at Yale University where he worked closely with Professor Averill Liebow. P S Hasleton
With his international outlook, he quickly made the department a St Thomas' a magnet for students from overseas, and his book Tropical Pathology was published in 1973. He had already begun devoting himself to what was to be his life's major work, which resulted in his magnum opus, Pathology of the Lung. This work was first published in 1962 and received international acclaim. Its reception ensured it a second impression in the following year. In 1968 the second edition was published and additional reprints followed in 1969, 1973 and 1975. The third edition appeared in 1977 and, again, reprints appeared later in that year and also in 1978. The forth edition was published in was published in 1985, and was further reprinted.
A pathologist who was constantly in demand, Spencer spent a lot of his life lecturing and examining around the world. On the majority of these trips he was accompanied by his wife, Eileen whom he married in 1940. Although his life was sharply focused on his work, he was completely devoted to his family. Equally he practised a total belief in Christian values - a belief which found expression in his practical, professional support of missionary hospitals around the world.
In his all too brief spare time he relaxed by pursuing his interests in gardening, walking and listening to classical music - pleasures he shared with his wife. She, a son and three daughters survive him.
Professor Herbert Spencer, the most Emeritus Professor of Morbid Anatomy at St Thomas's Medical School who has died aged 78, was an outstanding teacher and the author of the standard text on the pathology of the lung.
Herbert Spencer was born on Feb 8th 1915 and educated at Highgate and St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. With his extraordinary capacity for assimilating and communicating knowledge he achieved the unusual distinction of gaining higher qualifications in medicine, surgery and pathology. Conscripted into the army in 1942, he might have specialised in any of these fields. In the event the Army determined that he should be a pathologist, and he served in Iraq, Iran and Egypt, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in charge of laboratory services in the Middle Eastern theatre. On his discharge Spencer could have resumed a surgical career, but he was advised that the future lay in pathology. In 1950 he joined the academic department at St Thomas's Hospital, where he was successively a Lecturer, Reader and Professor from 1965 to 1980.
Generations of students have reason to be grateful for Spencer's gently didactic presentation of the elements of general pathology. Delivered without notes, hesitation or repetition, his lectures covered the subject from A to Z. He was said never to have forgotten a fact and, unlike many reputedly encyclopaedic minds, had the material organised and available whenever needed. He was in demand to teach and examine throughout the world.
And the world came to him. Through pulmonary pathology was the basis of his academic reputation, his hobby was the histology of exotic diseases. He set up a unit of "geographical pathology" at St. Thomas's in 1970, and thither specimens were sent and overseas students converged. For some time a postal histopathology service for Malawi was provided for this unit. Spencer's Tropical Pathology (1973) arose out of his interest in the histology of parasitic and other Tropical conditions.
Spencer was "a pathologist's pathologist". Not a committee man, he divided his time between teaching academic writing and his family. For all his achievements he was a retiring, private man whose life was informed by Christian faith. In retirement he taught for nearly a decade at St Mary's, where he had been a student, and worked regularly at the Royal College of Surgeons with a group of "wise men" who met to adjudicate on histological sections sent to the College for expert opinion. In 1985 he published the forth edition of his masterpiece, Pathology of the Lung.
Spencer married, in 1940, Eileen Morgan: they had a son and three daughters.
Professor Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was renowned for his expertise on disease of the lung and on tropical disease especially those caused by tropical parasites. His textbooks, Pathology of the Lung (1962) and Tropical Pathology (1973), were internationally acclaimed and remain works of reference to this day. Pathologists from all over the world sent samples to Spencer for a second opinion and he used these for postgraduate teaching within his department at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London and for instructing the visitors he received for further training.
Spencer was born in 1915 and educated at Highgate School and St Mary's Hospital Medical School where he qualified in medicine with honours in 1937. He proceeded to take postgraduate qualifications in both medicine and surgery before being called up into the RAMC where he served as a specialist pathologist and specialist surgeon in the Middle East from 1942 to 1947, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in charge of laboratory services in Cairo. It was at this time that he developed an interest in tropical medicine and parasitology.
On demobilisation from the Army Spencer returned as Assistant Pathologist to the central Histology Laboratories of the former London County Council before being appointed to the Department of Morbid Anatomy at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1950. Here he remained until his retirement in 1980 having climbed the academic ladder to the Chair of Morbid Anatomy in 1965. During this time he established his international reputation as an expert on the pathology of the lung.
Spencer kept up his interest in tropical pathology and for many years provided a postal histopathology service for several countries in Africa but especially for Malawi. His international reputation attracted visitors from all quarters of the globe to learn from his vast experience. They were always welcomed with kindness and courtesy. Spencer was an excellent teacher both of undergraduate and postgraduate students. He remained loyal to his early surgical leanings and was an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons / Imperial Cancer Research Fund, providing a valuable diagnostic service on difficult problems submitted by pathologists for a second opinion. Spencer was not a medical politician although he became a founder Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists. He preferred to leave it to others to sit on committees while he pursued his academic interests.
John Tighe
Professor Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was born in 1915 and qualified at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London with honours in 1937. He was called up into the RAMC, serving as a specialist pathologist in the Middle East from 1942 to 1947. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel when the Army found he was the only senior pathologist for several thousand miles. This did not cause any exaggerated sense of position. In fact, throughout his life he was a very humble man. This was demonstrated by his difficulty in reprimanding a soldier brought before him with a minor misdemeanour.
At the end of the war he worked as an Assistant Pathologist in the Central Histology Laboratory of the then London County Council before moving to the department of Morbid Anatomy at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1950. Fifteen years later he was appointed Professor. He stayed at St Thomas' until his retirement in 1980. His appointment was fruitful, producing further editions of his book and publishing many papers in pulmonary pathology as well as teaching and examining undergraduate students. He was an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons, 1958-70.
The first edition of the book which everyone associated with the name Spencer, 'Pathology of the Lung' (Pergamon Press, 1962), nearly never made publication. The index cards had all been filed safely in the family dining room in north London. However, his young daughter, Susan, at eighteen months tried her own referencing system and scattered the cards around the room. Fortunately Herbert Spencer, being a dedicated man, persevered and four editions of the book which grew from one to two volumes were produced. A posthumous edition is already in preparation.
The 1962 edition was one of the first comprehensive reference books on the pathology of the lung. While terminology and techniques may have altered and new diseases recognised, this volume contained many diseases entities seen today. Professor Spencer was fond of the history of each condition, to be found at the beginning of each section. The book was up to date. Malignant pleural tumours only managed two pages. However, Wagner's now classic paper on mesothelioma (Wagner JC., Sleggs CA, Marchand P. Brit J Ind Med 1960; 17: 260), a tumour whose existence was doubted by the authorities of the day, received a half a page.
Electron microscopy was added in later editions and extended our knowledge of the normal anatomy, through to malignancies such as small cell carcinoma. Pulmonary pathology was not Herbert Spencer's only interest. He provided a postal histopathology service for several countries in Africa, especially Malawi. This result in the publication of Tropical Pathology (Springer-Verlag, 1973). Inevitably he was used as a second opinion by pathologists all over the world. Herbert Spencer was an extremely modest man with committed Christian beliefs. His family, to whom he was devoted, never really realised he was an international figure; a man with a remarkable memory who to quote Averill Liebow, combined 'a rare concurrence of meticulousness and discernment'. The age of the single author reference book seems largely to have disappeared and we are left in amazement at the dedication he showed to pulmonary pathology throughout his life.
