Sheila Margaret Wooler Pittock

Sheila Pittock, as she was known locally, was born on 22 May 1924 at Bushey Lodge, near Hampton Court. Having decided at the age of 17 to pursue a career in medicine, she obtained a place at Leeds Medical School and graduated in 1948 with distinctions in pharmacology and therapeutics, and was awarded the Cecil Hardwick Prize in Medicine.

During her undergraduate days her interest in psychiatry was encouraged by Professor Henry Dicks. Her chosen area of interest was child and adolescent psychiatry. She underwent a personal analysis, but her higher training was completed in Leeds and Reading, where she worked with Dr Mildred Creak, and developed her life-long interest in autism.

She was not a stranger to Leicestershire when appointed to a consultant post in 1961, having frequently visited her Leicestershire grandparents as a child. She brought the concept of autism to Leicestershire, and pioneered early support for families, encouraging the local authority to appoint a specialist teacher for children with autism. For many years she was based in both the city and county child guidance clinics, where she worked closely with psychologists and psychiatric social workers. Though her own training was in psychoanalysis, she willingly supported colleagues who pursued behavioural approaches in selected cases. She worked effectively with girls with anorexia nervosa in a local education authority hostel.

Though most of her work was in the community, she was keen to plan for an adolescent unit, which became a reality before she retired.

She was a foundation member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and became a Fellow in 1981. Her local colleagues in psychiatry demonstrated their regard and respect for her abilities when they elected her to become the first chairman of the local division of psychiatry. She played her part in the development of the Leicester Medical School and enjoyed her role as a clinical teacher. For a number of years she was the sole child psychiatrist in Leicestershire.

On her retirement in 1985, though both she and her husband suffered much ill health, she pursued her interest in boating and continued to support the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. She died in the local hospice on 15 August 1999. She is survived by her husband, Ken, and, while they had no children, she leaves a much loved extended family. She is remembered with great affection by her family and erstwhile colleagues.