MyGlasgow News

Peter Charles Wilkinson, retired Professor of Immunology at the University of Glasgow, died peacefully at Antonine House, Bearsden in the early hours of Tuesday 29 August, 2017.

Peter was born in July, 1932 and brought up in the rural setting of Black Notley in what he always referred to as ‘the nice part of Essex’.

His father Michael, who bore the emotional scars of Autumn 1918 on the Western Front, was an orthopaedic surgeon and Medical Superintendent at a tuberculosis sanatorium catering for TB sufferers from the East London slums. His mother, Helen, who hailed from Rochester New York, was equable and sweet-natured.

From her, Peter inherited his love of books and desire to travel, though his mother’s wunderlust was curtailed by family - Peter was the second of eight children, he had two brothers and five sisters. His elder brother David, who was born with severe brain damage, died of meningitis aged 9 when Peter was 7.

Peter’s father, like many converts, was an intense and devout Catholic. In 1941 aged 9, Peter was sent to a boarding school run by a French order of monks many of whom were exiled from Nazi occupied France. This was initially a miserable time in Peter’s life, homesick and lonely, it marked him forever and he resolved never to send his own children to boarding school. On the plus side, he was well taught, excelled in most subjects, and the seeds of his life-long interests in literature, music and foreign languages were sown.

In 1951, there began a decade long association with the London Hospital. He studied medicine there, graduating in 1956 before continuing ‘on the house’. In this period, he met and fell in love with Eileen, a nurse on the wards and they were married in 1958. The marriage was very happy, it lasted for 54 years and produced three children Anthony, Catherine and James. After a two-year spell of National Service spent in Lincolnshire, Peter returned to the London Hospital and an Immunology job in Bob White’s lab. Late in 1963, Bob White was offered the Chair in Bacteriology at Glasgow University at the Western Infirmary and asked Peter to accompanying him.

In 1964, Peter and Eileen moved to Glasgow. This was a difficult time, money was tight, the children were very young, and Peter’s journey to work was long and tiring. In the autumn of 1967, Peter took a 15 month sabbatical in Switzerland where he worked in the Schweizerisches Forschungsinstitut in Davos run by Ernst Sorkin. This was a very happy time for the family and a productive time for Peter whose ‘career was stimulated by contact with the new field of leucocyte chemotaxis in Davos’. Moreover, from this idyllic Central European base, the family went on spectacular railway holidays around Switzerland and its many neighbouring countries so that Peter could indulge himself and ‘visit as many of the great monuments of European art and architecture as I possibly could’. Life continued to pick up on his return to Glasgow with the family moving to a new home in Broomhill from where Peter could walk to and from work, an activity he always cherished. At this time, Peter was feeling that he would be able to ‘make a considerable impact in the relatively unexplored field’ of leucocyte chemotaxis.

For the remainder of his time in Glasgow, Peter more than fulfilled this prediction, his lab becoming one of most highly respected in the field. As well as having connections with many of the leaders in the discipline, he established collaborations with a wide range of colleagues in Glasgow and further afield. This was strengthened by a sabbatical spent with Sam Silverstein at the Rockefeller University, New York during the 1970s, a period that Peter considered one of the most important of his career.

Together with a succession of outstanding students and research assistants, Peter made a number of important fundamental contributions to understanding how leucocytes move in response to infection and inflammation. At the time, little was known about the molecular and cellular mechanisms behind these processes and Peter was ahead of his time in establishing methods and theories that helped underpin the now extensive subject of chemokines and cell motility. 

Being part of the last generation of scientists who did research for fun, he had an entrenched distaste for bureaucratic rules and obfuscation. A familiar sight in the days before Health and Safety was Peter performing experiments with pipe in mouth. As well as his research achievements, Peter was instrumental in establishing the BSc Immunology course in the mid 1970s, on which he was one of the principal contributors, as well as running the honours course for many years during the 1980s.He also led the development of the Clinical Immunology diagnostic service in Glasgow, helping to make it one of the first laboratories of its kind in the UK and it remains the largest in Scotland. Rarely becoming flustered nor taking academic politics too seriously, Peter was a calm and wise mentor, with a sharp sense of humour.  Together with the late Delphine Parrott, he steered the Department of Immunology through initially troubled waters, setting the scene for its rapid development through into the 21^st century. Although he held the fort as acting Head of Department between 1990 and 1991, this was not a role that he enjoyed and he was glad to return to his research and teaching.  He is remembered now as one of our most venerated and respected colleagues - his lasting legacy lies in novel insights shared in his literature and especially in the generations of scientists whom he taught and inspired.

Peter continued to live a full and happy life following his retirement in 1997, enjoying the company of his family and friends and pursuing his interests in travel and art in many of its forms. Following her stroke in 2000, Peter devoted himself to caring for Eileen, the love of his life until her death in 2013.

There will be a Funeral Mass for Peter Wilkinson at St Peter’s Church, Hyndland Street, Partick on Tuesday, 12 September at 10 am followed by a short Celebration of his Life at the Glasgow Crematorium at 11.30 am. Friends of Peter are invited to join family members back at St Peter’s Church afterwards for a reception.#

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First published: 5 September 2017