David Watkin

We have learned, with sadness, of the death of Mr David Watkin, who was instrumental in the founding of Leicester Medical School.

The following obituary, by David's daughter Sally Watkin, originally appeared in the BMJ.

David Watkin was a firm believer in the importance of teaching, but he felt that the training he received was inadequate. “The number of operations for which a consultant directly supervised me could be counted on the fingers of one hand,” he wrote.

He worked tirelessly to do better for his staff—and not just doctors and medical students. Shortly after taking up his consultant post in general surgery at Leicester Royal Infirmary in 1971, he set up training for intensive care nurses and created a course for the new grade of operating department assistants.

When he was appointed inaugural clinical subdean for the new Leicester Medical School, which opened in 1975, he was given a free hand to set up clinical training, which included designing the course, allocating clinical attachments, running the exams and caring for the students.

He believed in the importance of informal chats during training and felt that the team-based “firm” structure of the time provided stability and the opportunity for mentorship. To ensure that juniors had enough experience in theatre and on the wards, he maximised opportunities for supervised operating, with “every case a teaching case.” He favoured a competence-based rather than time-based emphasis in training.

As a general surgeon whose operations ranged from thyroidectomy to gallstones and breast and rectal cancer, Watkin relished the broad scope of his role, including emergencies. As surgery evolved into specialties, he became a coloproctologist by day, though still a generalist at night. He was not convinced of the benefits of subspecialisation, concerned that it might reduce surgeons’ capacity to handle the unexpected.

His colleague and friend, retired consultant paediatric surgeon Michael Johnstone, said, “By any measure, David was exceptional. A surgeon, physician, researcher, teacher—and above all, a husband and father. David was a firm support through those early consultant years; always available, always on an equal footing, never patronising. I was and will remain deeply grateful to him.”

Watkin also valued the importance of learning in other ways and was an early adopter in the 1980s of surgical audit. He embraced computerisation by helping to devise a system of codes for surgical diagnoses, operations and complications, the data for which he initially input himself. This enabled morbidity and mortality to be analysed. In 1990, by which time clinical audit had become NHS policy, Watkin represented the Association of Surgeons in the first of a series of national surgical audits.

His many roles included regional adviser for the Royal College of Surgeons, which led to chairing the specialist advisory committee responsible for training. He was elected president of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 2000-1.

Watkin was born in Shrewsbury, the son of Frank, a banker, and Mary (née Nicholls), a teacher. The family had moved to Wrexham when, aged 12, David won a scholarship to board at St Edward’s, Oxford. He considered becoming either a farmer or doctor but as the former would have required capital, he opted for medicine and gained a place at Cambridge.

His clinical training began at Westminster Hospital Medical School, London, where he won the prize for obstetrics and met his future wife, fellow student Elisabeth, who became a consultant radiologist.

He did surgical training in Bristol, Leicester, Derby and Sheffield. In his book, A Surgeon’s Lifetime: Evolution in General Surgery 1959-2001, written in retirement, he describes the “bad old days” of house jobs in teaching hospitals, when he was on duty 24 hours a day for six months with one weekend off in the middle.

While work took priority, he found time to pursue his childhood hobby of dinghy sailing, later becoming a founder member of Rutland Sailing Club and chartering yachts for family holidays.

After retirement, Watkin was able to indulge his lifelong love of gardening.

He intended to avoid professional work once he retired but he led a training group on cleft lip and palate surgery. Then in 2016, he joined other retired doctors to pose clinical hypotheses for students at Leicester Medical School. He enjoyed this so much he continued to participate online during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

He is survived by Elisabeth; their three children; and four grandchildren.

David Francis Lloyd Watkin (b 10 July 1935; q Westminster Hospital Medical School 1959; FRCS), died from chronic renal failure on 14 July 2024