- the world a safer place for many older people

Death takes us by suprise and stays our scurrying feet. Longfellow’s words sprung to mind when I heard that Gerry was dying. Fortunately, I saw him on the morning that he died and was able to thank him for all that he did to make the world a better, and safer, place for older people to live in. In the early 80's, as lecturer, Gerry made an outstanding contribution to the development of clinical services in St James's Hospital and to the teaching of ageing at St George's. His drive and enthusiasm led to Ward 14, with its seventeen beds, ten place day hospital for recovering inpatients and ward follow-ups, and an attached small occupational and physiotherapy department being featured on a BBC TV programme. Thereafter I followed his career with interest and was delighted when he became a Professor.

Now his life has been cut short, his personal crusade has ended; the melanoma treated in 1983 came back in virulent form. After a roller coaster ride of hopes for successful treatment, Gerry died on April 13th 2003.

Prof Peter Millard

Prof Gerry Bennett
1951-2003

Gerry Bennett qualified at the Welsh National School of Medicine in July 1976, having been awarded the Clive Rees prize in Social Medicine.

Having gained a taste for geriatric medicine during his SHO rotations he joined us at St George’s as registrar in geriatric medicine in 1980. A year later he was promoted to lecturer. At this time we were formally writing the medical student curriculum for training in geriatric medicine and Gerry took an active part in putting the curriculum together, and also in producing training handouts. Later this would form the basis for his collaboration with Shah Ebrahim and the publication of the Essentials of Health Care in Old Age, a book we still recommend to our students at St George’s as it closely resembles our teaching programme.

In 1984 he was appointed as consultant and lecturer at the Royal London Hospital, taking the lead in developing its geriatric medicine service. Gerry has many claims to fame but he will probably be best remembered by members of the Society as the person who put the issue of elder abuse on the map. However, I believe that his work on tissue viability, an interest he first developed at St George’s, also made an extremely valuable contribution to this area. His work in both of these fields, and in education were marked by his appointment as Professor 2 years ago.

The recurrence after 20 years of his melanoma was a great shock to everybody yet he continued to work tirelessly up until his final illness. A lot of us will remember him as a valued friend and colleague and he will be sorely missed.

Ian R Hastie