Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

Adolf William Asscher (1930 – 20 July 2014) was a Dutch-born British consultant

nephrologist Nephrology (from Greek'' nephros'' "kidney", combined with the suffix ''-logy'', "the study of") is a specialty of adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (ren ...

. Asscher was born in the Netherlands. His family was of Jewish heritage; they were thus deported to

Westerbork transit camp Camp Westerbork ( nl, Kamp Westerbork, german: Durchgangslager Westerbork, Drents: ''Börker Kamp; Kamp Westerbörk'' ), also known as Westerbork transit camp, was a Nazi transit camp in the province of Drenthe in the Northeastern Netherlands, d ...

, from where his mother secured their release in 1943 by fabricating claims to be of English descent, helped in part by her son's blond hair. The family left the Netherlands in 1947, when his father obtained a position with

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

in London. After

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

, he studied medicine at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. He rose to be Professor of Medicine at the

University of Cardiff , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

from 1976 to 1987 and Director of the Institute of Nephrology there from 1970 to 1987. He was appointed Dean of

St George's Hospital Medical School St George's, University of London (legally St George's Hospital Medical School, informally St George's or SGUL), is a University located in Tooting in South London and is a constituent college of the University of London. St George's has its o ...

in 1988, subsequently becoming its Principal until his retirement in 1996. He chaired the United Kingdom

Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their ow ...

's Committee on the Review of Medicines from 1985 to 1987 and its successor, the

Committee on Safety of Medicines The Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) was an independent advisory committee that advised the UK Licensing Authority on the quality, efficacy, and safety of medicines. Following the thalidomide tragedy of 1957 to 1961, in 1963 the government ...

1987 to 1993. He was knighted for this work. He died from bowel cancer on 20 July 2014. An obituary was published in the

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...

References

External links

* 1930 births Place of birth missing 2014 deaths Place of death missing Knights Bachelor 20th-century British medical doctors Westerbork transit camp survivors {{UK-med-bio-stub