It was with great sadness that I set off to get the earliest train from Liverpool, on 2nd June, to attend Richard Lynham’s memorial service.

The service was held at St Anne’s Church, Highgate, Richard’s regular place of worship, and just around the corner from where he lived in Langbourne Avenue. It brought together all the disparate parts of Richard’s life, attended by senior officers of the Society, other members of the British Geriatrics Society (notably past President, Michael Denham and Professor Sir John Grimley Evans) as well as members of staff past and present. Other members of the congregation included Richard’s neighbours, people associated with his work as a magistrate and his days in the pharmaceutical industry and in the Territorial Army. The service was a fitting memorial for Richard, being elegant, simple and sincere with moving tributes paid to him by his next door neighbour Dr Jonathan Ledermann (a distinguished oncologist), whose tribute is published in this newsletter, and Alan Horrocks, a distinguished academic in film studies at Royal Holloway College. The eulogies captured Richard perfectly.

As a very generous thought and typical of Richard, he had laid on a lunch for his friends at one of his favourite restaurants, the San Carlo in Highgate. This was a happy, celebratory affair. I enjoyed walking up to the restaurant along Langbourne Avenue and being shown Richard’s immaculate rose garden which his neighbours have maintained since his death. In the restaurant, friends from all different walks of life mixed together, exchanging anecdotes and all believing that Richard would have been very pleased with the occasion. Amongst the guests was Ann Barry who was Richard’s original PA when he joined the BGS in the early 90’s. She had come all the way from Victoria, Canada to attend the memorial service, which speaks volumes for the respect that Richard was able to command from everybody who was lucky enough to have contact with him.

Gerontofest
Since the May column, I have had a very crowded schedule of events with a lot of travel. I was delighted to be invited by Graham Mulley to Leeds to give a lecture in a Gerontofest, for the benefit of Danish Health Care workers who were visiting. It was great to renew my acquaintance with the President of the Danish Geriatrics Society. Danish medicine is very similar to British medicine being largely funded from taxation. The Danish geriatricians share many of the same problems that we do in this country. Graham and his colleagues in Leeds were able to display some of the best geriatric practice in the country and the dialogue between Danish and British Geriatrics proved to be very valuable.

I was delighted to be invited by Willie Primrose, president elect of the Scottish BGS, to a meeting of BGS Scotland in Inverness. Dr Srivastava hosted an excellent scientific programme at the Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. Although I could not attend all the meeting, I very much enjoyed exchanging views and ideas with Scottish members at the dinner on the Thursday evening. It was particularly good to see that great master of the after dinner speech, Brian Williams who performed to perfection.

I am sure that the members of the BGS will join me in extending Willie Primrose our very best wishes on his coming marriage.

Parliamentary Science committee
No sooner back from Scotland than I was off to London to attend the parliamentary science committee. This committee is a meeting place for scientists and politicians. I was there representing the Royal College of Physicians. The meeting took place in Port Cullis House, the much criticised expensive accommodations next door to the House of Commons, I must say that the facilities were absolutely superb. The Committee heard a number of presentations, most notably from Tom Kirkwood, on the impact of ageing. I was relieved to see a number of people that I already knew. The Secretary of the Committee was Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford. I recall that I had interviewed him for an SHO post at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital some years ago (he had been successful). It was interesting to see his sharp political mind at work. Also, there was Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive of the MRC and Lord Turnberg, formally President of the RCP. After presentations, there was a reception and again many prominent politicians were there, including Lord Howe. I was very privileged to be invited to the small dinner after the meeting, which proved a stimulating affair with free ranging discussion on issues regarding ageing, with active interchanges between politicians of all colourss and sections, and scientists. I certainly made sure that the voice of geriatrics was heard clearly! On the following day I was able to attend the Royal College of Physicians Council meeting in London. I was delighted to see that Chandi Vellodi and Pippa Metcalfe form a very strong geriatric representation, soon to be strengthened by the recent election of David Black to the council.

BGS Oxford
On the 25th May I was delighted to fulfil an invitation by Nihal Gunasekera to attend the Oxford regional BGS meeting held in the music room of Corpus Christie College Oxford. As I trained in geriatrics at Oxford, it was very good to return there. I enjoyed the interesting meeting. As in Scotland, members have issues regarding modernising medical careers, which is going to be a huge challenge to our speciality.

Already being in London on 2nd June I was able to fulfil an invitation which I would normally have had to refuse, for a reception at Kensington Palace to mark the launch of a new and major pharmaceutical company, Astellas. This company comes from a merger of two of the largest Japanese pharmaceutical companies and its headquarters is based in Britain. My invitation reflects the seriousness with which the pharmaceutical industry is now regarding our specialty. I was able to make a number of contacts at this meeting, although the expected attendance by the Minister of Health did not occur because of urgent business in the House of Commons.

Public relations
Just back from an International Conference in Berlin on Parkinson’s Disease and related disorders, it was gratifying to see so many geriatricians at this conference. I was able to have a number of serious conversations again, detecting major concerns within the specialty, notably to do with a loss of rehabilitation beds and the ignorance of many commissioners as to the importance of geriatrics expertise. There was major concern regarding the need for the IT agenda to be geriatric friendly and a general feeling that the Society should have more input into this process. I think that there is also a concern that we are not achieving effective public relations. In very important issues regarding medicine for the elderly, journalists are turning to Age Concern and Help the Aged, rather than seeking our expertise. All these issues will be finding there way onto our agenda and we will be looking to influence current change and debate to an ever greater extent.

Leo Wollner
Another great loss to the Society was the death of Leo Wollner, which I learned about from the Newsletter. Leo trained a regiment of geriatricians and all of us who were privileged to work with him have fond memories of his kindness and enthusiasm. I very nearly missed the birth of my first child because I could not prise myself away from a conversation with Leo! He has left a lasting mark on our specialty.

Jerry Playfer