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Eric was part of the Dunn School community for over 60 years—as a medical student, researcher, lecturer, and later as the department’s historian. He was known for his warmth, enthusiasm, and deep commitment to the Dunn School and its people.

He came to Oxford to study medicine at a time when Howard Florey and Hans Krebs were still lecturing undergraduates. After completing his clinical training in London, he returned to Oxford in 1966 as one of Henry Harris’s first DPhil students. His early research focused on the function of the nucleolus, and he later worked on cancer, using Harris’s pioneering cell fusion techniques to investigate metastasis.

Eric later played a major role in overseeing undergraduate teaching within the department, a role that expanded into significant responsibilities, including chairing the Faculty of Medicine board. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he played a central role in coordinating medical teaching across Oxford’s pre-clinical departments. In the late 1980s, he worked at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund before returning to Oxford 5 years later.

After his retirement he developed a role for himself in the department as our historian, and became a leading expert on the history of medicine at Oxford. He wrote two books- ‘Oxford Medicine: A Walk Through Nine Centuries’ and ‘Penicillin and the Legacy of Norman Heatley’—and gave talks on the subject extensively (including on cruise ships!). He was a tireless campaigner for the recognition of Oxford’s contribution to the penicillin story, and in particular that of Norman Heatley. He was also a Fellow of Lincoln College.

Eric’s contributions to science, education, and the history of medicine will be remembered by many. He will be greatly missed.

We would be delighted to receive recollections of Eric and anecdotes about him from those who knew him. Please email them to alumni@path.ox.ac.uk, indicating whether you would like us to forward them to his family.