David Hull was the last President of the British Paediatric Association (BPA) and along with Sir Roy Meadow, first President of the RCPCH, they were largely responsible for the final push towards the establishment of the College in 1996.
David Hull died on 13 March at the age of 88. He was a man of many parts but above all else he was an excellent general paediatrician. Indeed when he established the University Department of Paediatrics in Nottingham in 1970 he was determined that all consultants should be generalists although they did develop special interests. In the 70s Nottingham was a mecca for those wanting to train in paediatrics and he wrote three beautifully illustrated books for undergraduates, postgraduates and for those working in community paediatrics.
He started his medical career in physiology and worked in Oxford at the Nuffield Research unit with the legendary Geoffrey Dawes, FRS. He discovered the importance of brown fat in newborns which is essential for thermoregulation. For many years he was known as brown fat Hull. He was a wise man who was adviser to Government and often undertook sensitive enquiries. He became very interested in medicines through his work on the Committee on the Safety of Medicines. As a retirement project he was determined to try and ensure that the best advice was available for those prescribing for children. The majority of such medicines were not licensed for use in children as the necessary research for regulatory approval had not been done. He harnessed the knowledge and experience of many paediatricians to produce Medicines for Children which provided consensus statements on virtually every drug likely to be prescribed for children. Initially the Government was reluctant to endorse this as they thought they would be open to legal challenge should things go wrong. However, when they saw what a difference good information made to prescribing for children they adopted the book as the British National Formulary for Children, which everyone uses today.
Dame Elizabeth Fradd who was Director of Nursing in Nottingham before going on to become Deputy Chief Nursing Officer worked closely with David over many years. As a result of witnessing his extraordinary analysis of fact in a court room in London, she was inspired to attend a Neonatal Conference in Nottingham. David was the first speaker; she knew then she would like to work with him.
His ability to be teacher, clinician and playmate was evident on Elizabeth's first day in post. David was conducting his teaching ward round under a sink while playing with a toddler. His determination to put the child and family first was a fundamental element of the culture he developed in the Department. She observed his ability to do more than one thing at a time on a number of occasions notably during an Audit Commission meeting during which he drew cartoons of each individual around the table, completed the index to his latest book and gave Elizabeth a summary of the discussions during the morning for her to add to during the afternoon, as he had to leave the meeting.