Ralph Hudson Johnson FRSE (3 December 1933 – 1 July 1993) was a 20th-century British

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

Early life and education

He was born on 3 December 1933 in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear the son of Sydney Reynald Edward Johnson, an electrical engineer, and his wife, Phyllis. He attended

Lawrence Sheriff School Lawrence Sheriff School is a boys' grammar school in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. The school is named after Lawrence Sheriff, the Elizabethan founder of Rugby School. Lawrence Sheriff School was founded in 1878, in order to continue Sheriff's ...

and then won a scholarship to

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...

. He won a double scholarship and obtained multiple degrees at both

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

and

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Career

Johnson completed his training at

UCL Medical School UCL Medical School is the medical school of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. The School provides a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programmes and also has a medical educatio ...

in London, in 1958. In 1960, he moved to the Radcliffe Infirmary in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he conducted research on artificial respiration for poliomyelitis and rehabilitation of

paraplegics Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek () "half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neural ...

, winning awards from the Polio Research Fund, British Medical Association and the Schorstein Medical Research Fellowship of Oxford University. He was awarded multiple doctorates and honorary doctorates throughout his career. In 1976 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John A Simpson, Robert Martin Stuart Smellie, Henry G Morgan, and Reginald Passmore. In 1977, he went to the newly-created Wellington Clinical School of Medicine in New Zealand as its first dean. Mixing research with organisational skills, he created a new Diploma in Community Health in 1981. In 1987 he returned to Britain, taking up a Fellowship at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

Death

A keen apiarist, he died of anaphylactic shock after having been stung by a swarm of his own bees in his garden in

on 1 July 1993.

Publications

*''Disorders of the Automatic Nervous System'' (1974) with J M K Spalding *'' Multiple Sclerosis in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

'' (1978) *''Neurocardiology'' (1985) with Lambie and Spalding

Family

In 1970, he married Gillian S Keith, a social worker. They had two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Ralph Hudson 1933 births 1993 deaths People from Tyne and Wear Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Cambridge Alumni of the University of Oxford British neurologists People educated at Lawrence Sheriff School People educated at Rugby School Academic staff of the University of Otago 20th-century non-fiction writers