Professor Frederick Hope Stone, OBE

Emeritus Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Glasgow

Professor Stone was one of the leading child psychiatrists of his generation. His work spanned infant mental health, autism, liaison psychiatry, adoption and juvenile justice. He held numerous high offices including Secretary General of the International Association of Child Psychiatry, Chairman of the Scottish Division of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Chair of the Strathclyde Children's Panel Advisory Committee, and President of Young Minds. His proudest achievement was probably his participation in the Kilbrandon Committee whose groundbreaking report led to the establishment of the internationally acclaimed children's hearing system in Scotland. He was awarded the OBE for services to children in 1991.

Fred (as he preferred to be called) was born on 11 September 1921 in the west end of Glasgow into a Jewish family of European origin. Educated at Hillhead High School, he graduated in medicine in 1945 from the University of Glasgow. Having initially trained in paediatrics, he worked professionally in the harsh conditions of Israel in the 1950s, where he encountered many traumatised children including those from both the European Holocaust and the Jewish refugee communities of the Middle East. This experience stood him in good stead when he returned to the UK to address the problems of another challenging population, that of Clydeside where some of the most socially deprived communities in Western Europe were located.

He gained Fellowships of both the London and the Glasgow Royal Colleges of Physicians and the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He became a foundation Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. He also made a great impact on psychiatry via psychotherapy, his analytic training having honed his skills in understanding emotional disorders and dysfunctional family relationships. Further insights were gained from personal acquaintance with John Bowlby, Anna Freud, Donald Winnicott and Erik Erikson. He was one of the pioneers of modern child and adolescent psychiatry, taking account of child development, physical and neurological disorders, and patterns of family relationships, enabling psychodynamic insights to add a further dimension to the management of emotional disorders of childhood.

Fred Stone was not just a good academic; he achieved significantly important changes that made a lasting difference to services for children, especially in Scotland. He was appointed Consultant Child Psychiatrist at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children (Yorkhill) in 1954. He led the first academic department of child psychiatry in Scotland, which opened at 70 University Avenue in the following year. This out-patient clinic supported a small multidisciplinary team of specialists - some of whom subsequently became nationally and internationally known. The Woodlands Day Centre, where therapy could be combined with education and play, dealt with day patients that included some diagnosed with autism. Paediatric liaison psychiatry at Yorkhill began during this period, involving physicians and psychiatrists jointly discussing the cause of a disorder (e.g. abdominal pain). The result was a much more integrated and productive service for children and their families.

The original children's hospital building on the Yorkhill site began to subside in 1965 and patients were evacuated to Oakbank Hospital in January 1966. The new hospital on the cleared site was opened in 1971. Fred's skills were used to design a large child and family psychiatry department that was functionally integrated with the rest of the hospital. There were two wards of eight beds, a day unit with school rooms and activity areas, as well as three complete suites of offices for three teams to use for out-patients or sometimes paediatric referrals from the wards. This was a radical step for the specialty that perhaps only Fred could have engineered. He was appointed to the first Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Scotland in 1977.

Another major achievement was the seminal part he played in developing the Scottish children's hearing system which responds to children identified as being at risk as well as those with offending behaviour. The concept of seeking causes and offering possible help to young people and their families represented enormous progress from the earlier, more punitive method. This approach was advocated by the Kilbrandon Committee (1963-65) of which Fred was an active member, and he retained an interest in the children's panels until his death on 21 June 2009. He made another significant contribution as a member of the Houghton Committee (1968-72) on adoption.

A further contribution to important services to Glasgow was the development of Notre Dame Child Guidance Clinic and Fern Tower Adolescent Unit. Fred gave his time and creative energy as visiting consultant to these well-respected and progressive establishments. In 1971, he gave a public lecture about the clinic. The meeting was held in the Glasgow Candleriggs City Hall which was filled to capacity, including the galleries. The audience was totally absorbed and Fred received massive recognition at the end when people came up to the front to ask questions and seek advice. This was an example of his gifted oratory. He was able to explain complex phenomena in simple terms, usually laced with subtle humour. He was a good listener and performed effectively on committees of all kinds. He was an excellent medical politician who raised the status of child psychiatry internationally as well as in Glasgow and Scotland.

Away from work he had a lifelong passion for music. He was a gifted pianist and owned a beautifully looked-after grand piano. His eclectic tastes ranged from Mozart, Haydn and Schubert to Gershwin, Porter and Ellington. So formidable were his musical skills that he was once offered a post as pianist of a cruise ship dance band of the 1930s. He was active within the Glasgow Jewish community and was a founder member and an honorary life president of Cosgrove Care, an organisation supporting people with learning disabilities.

Fred retired from Yorkhill in 1987 having achieved much. From the modest beginnings at Yorkhill there are today several consultants in child and adolescent psychiatry. There are four Glasgow district clinics, each with a child psychiatry team and an adolescent psychiatry team, a child in-patient unit, the Scottish Centre for Autism, the academic unit and a paediatric liaison team at Yorkhill Hospital, where the Frederick Stone Unit (for child protection) bears his name. In the early 1970s an adolescent psychiatrist was appointed at Gartnavel Royal Hospital and an in-patient adolescent unit was served by the consultant and other staff. This resource has been further developed in recent years.

In developing the new specialty of child psychiatry the integration of the disciplines involving social work, psychology, nursing and other professions presented challenges requiring Fred's tact and negotiating skills over many years. The books that he authored or to which he contributed (Psychiatry and the Paediatrician, Child Psychiatry for Students, Juvenile Justice in Scotland, Youth Justice and Child Protection) are arguably classics. He maintained an active interest in services for children long after his formal retirement. He will be missed by many - whether patients, colleagues, students, friends or family members - whose lives have been enriched by his presence.

A devoted family man, he was married to Zelda who was a primary school teacher in some disadvantaged areas of the city and latterly a teacher of teachers at Jordanhill College. She was his wife for 60 years and her death in 2006 was a huge loss to him. The Stones were hospitable, amusing and insightful. Anyone visiting always somehow felt better, no matter if it was a mainly social visit or for more serious discussion. The marriage produced three children: David is a paediatric epidemiologist at Yorkhill, Judith is a clinical psychologist and Martin is an orthopaedic surgeon. There are eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his brother Arthur.

It is typical of the family's generosity that Fred Stone's complete works of Sigmund Freud are bequeathed to the departmental university library.