The BSG is sad to announce the death of former BSG president, Prof. Ian Bouchier.  Ian was president of BSG in 1995 and was a major figure in UK gastroenterology for many years. We are thankful for the major impact he made upon gastroenterology practice and for the patients his work impacted. We are grateful to Niall Finlayson who has written the following tribute to Ian.

Obituary

Ian Bouchier was born in 1932 in Cape Town, South Africa. He graduated MB,ChB from Cape Town University in 1954 and MD in 1960. He developed a special interest in gastroenterology while working on this MD thesis, and went on to study this specialty with Sir Francis Avery Jones and Dame Shiela Sherlock in London and with Dr Franz Inglefinger (later Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine) in Boston. He has been the author, co-author or contributor of numerous papers and books; his main research interest was in bile acid metabolism and the formation of gallstones.

 He was appointed Senior Lecturer and later Reader in Medicine and Honorary Consultant at the Royal Free Hospital in London in 1965. Subsequently, he became Professor of Medicine in the University of Dundee in 1973, where he was also Dean of the Medical School. He was then appointed Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh in 1986 where he remained till his retirement in 1996. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1985 and was awarded a CBE in 1990 for services to education.   He was appointed Chief Scientist at the Scottish Office Home and Health Department in 1992.

 Ian Bouchier took a major interest in gastroenterology in the UK and around the world. He was invited to deliver many lectures and was made an honorary member of several gastroenterology societies. He had a long association with the World Organisation of Gastroenterology which works to improve standards of education and training in gastroenterology; he was its Secretary General for many years and its President in 1990 and 1994.

 Peter Hayes, a close colleague, first met Ian when Peter was a medical student at Dundee University. He described Ian as approachable, charismatic and inspirational, and young doctors in his department benefitted from his teaching and his support of their research. Later, in Edinburgh, Ian established an excellent department of medicine and strongly encouraged research in liver disease, including in particular, Peter’s extensive research into portal hypertension. I first came to know Ian in Edinburgh by which time his responsibilities extended to the university generally, the NHS, medical aspects of government in Scotland and medicine the world beyond the UK. Nonetheless, he found time to support clinical hepatology in the Royal Infirmary, and his support was valuable in establishing liver transplantation in the hospital. He will be remembered by all those who had the opportunity to work with him.

 By Niall DC Finlayson OBE, MBChB, FRCPE, FRCP.