Year James Spence Medal awarded: 1993
Dame June Lloyd DBE received scholarships and prizes while studying at the medical school in Bristol and, after two years as a paediatric registrar, she studied for the Diploma of Public Health in the University of Durham before moving to Birmingham as a research fellow and then as a lecturer. She began her studies on nutrition, especially the role of lipid metabolism in health and disease in childhood, which was original and difficult to investigate at that time.
While a senior research fellow at Washington University, she became interested in vitamin E. At the time, there was general uncertainty and many questioned its claim as a vitamin. June was able to demonstrate that damage to patients with a rare metabolic disease, oQ-betalipoproteinaemia, could be avoided with the use of vitamin E.
June Lloyd was appointed senior lecturer and honorary consultant physician to the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street and was tasked with providing specialist clinical services for children with metabolic diseases and establishing a research laboratory for the investigation of children with metabolic disorders within the institute. In 1976, she wrote two reviews in Recent Advances in Paediatrics: the first on obesity with Otto Wolff, the second on hyperlipoproteinaemia and atherosclerosis, aiding with current understanding on both problems.
Professor Lloyd became head of the department for child health at the newly relocated St George’s Hospital and it was there she established a new academic department in child health. She was constantly in demand for committee work and her achievements were extensively recognised. The University of Bristol awarded her an Honorary DSc, she was BPA President from 1988 to 1991, she became Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians of London, and she was honoured by the Queen.
Date of death: 28 June 2006