Br Med J. 1961 Dec 30; 2(5269): 1788-1789

[οισοφαγος_barrett]

Obituary: A. M. BARRETT, M.D

Dr. A. M. Barrett, university morbid anatomist and histologist at Cambridge and honorary consulating pathologist to the United Cambridge Hospitals and to the East Anglian Regional Hospital Board, died on December 11, aged 52.

Arthur Max Barrett was born at Thaxted in Essex, where he spent his boyhood. He was educated at Newport Grammar School and at the Cambridge and County High School, where he won a State scholarship in 1927 and a major scholarship to Pembroke College in 1928. His university career was brilliant; he obtained first-class  honours in both parts of the Natural Sciences Tripos and was awarded the Schoolbred and Foundress' scholarships. He went to the London Hospital Medical College as an entrance scholar in pathology and won five prizes during his clinical training. He graduated M.B., B.Ch. in 1934 and then worked in the wards and laboratories of the London Hospital until 1938, when he returned to Cambridge as a university demonstrator in pathology. During the war years he was the only demonstrator in the department and shouldered a very large part of the teaching responsibility. Despite this he found time to take an active interest  in the routine pathology services of Addenbrooke's Hospital. In 1946 he was appointed to the newly created post of university morbid anatomist and histologist to Addenbrooke's Hospital, continuing in that post until his death. His thesis for the M.D. degree was submitted in 1960 and gained him the Raymond Horton-Smith prize.

His work as a pathologist was always of the highest quality, and his standards were a constant stimulus to all who worked with him. His dissections of the human body were conducted meticulously, skillfully and systematically; there always remained something to be learned from his conduct of a necropsy. Time became of no consequence on these occasions, and lunch hours flitted by until he was satisfied that no more could be gained from the examination. It was in this way that he often disclosed the unexpected and left his assistants and students with the firm resolve that nothing would be missed next time. At the bench he was a skilled technician, conversant with every aspect of the art of histological technique. He was for many years an examiner for the Institute of Medical and Laboratory Technology, and his advice, patience and guidance were invaluable to those who examined with him.

He believed in the precise use of language, and this was constantly illustrated in the detailed reports which he made on histological preparations. At the microscope, as in the post-mortem room, he was often able to discover some small but important clue which enabled a firm diagnosis to be made. His advice was constantly sought by pathologists in East Anglia and elsewhere, never without profit. He built up a tradition of the conduct and teaching of morbid anatomy in Cambridge which was of the highest calibre. Unfortunately a great deal of his vast store of knowledge has died with him, but some of it he communicated by the daily instruction of those who worked with him and by means of clinicopathological meetings which were much appreciated by his clinical colleagues.

As a friend and counsellor he was staunch and always reliable. No decision was taken in haste but only after careful consideration. When he spoke at the Faculty Board of Medicine or as secretary of the Degree Committee everyone recognized it as a carefully balanced statement worthy of consideration.

He enjoyed, among his hobbies, the collection of field fungi. These were carefully preserved, often examined histologically, and recorded with the same care that he gave to all his doings. His family life was a happy one: tea with the Barretts was fun, for he had imparted to his family his unbounded curiosity, which was, in the view of many friends, his most endearing characteristic.

Cambridge and British medicine have lost one who stood in the forefront of pathology. His untimely death is a bitter blow to all who knew him and particularly so to those who worked with him.

To his devoted wife and family we extend our deepest condolences, with the small but significant consolation that much of his character lives on with those who had the good fortune to work with him.-G.A.G.