Sir Raymond Hoffenberg
MF saddened by death of eminent physician who was a patron
The MF was saddened to learn of the recent death of one its patrons, the distinguished endocrinologist and medical scientist Sir Raymond Hoffenberg, who was formerly President of the Royal College of Physicians.
Sir Raymond, who was originally from South Africa, combined a glittering career in medicine with outspoken opposition to the apartheid regime, which led in 1967 to his being banned from politics, or association socially with more than one person at a time.
Among the reasons given was his work as chairman of the Defence and Aid Fund, which assisted black political defendants and their families.
The following year, finding it almost impossible to continue his work he left with his wife Margaret for exile in the UK, where he obtained a post at the National Health and Research Council in North London.
By that time he was an endocrinologist of international standing, having been accepted by the University of Cape Town (UCT) to read medicine at the age of just 16. After serving in North Africa and Italy in World War Two, he had returned to the university and become a senior lecturer in medicine, specialising in the study of glands that secrete hormones directly into the blood.
He had at the same time broadened his experience with work alongside the missionary doctor Albert Schweitzer in Gabon (then French Equatorial Africa), and visits to the US under the auspices of the Carnegie Fellowship.
In Britain, Sir Raymond spent four years with the research council, which he combined with work on thyroid disorders at New End Hospital, Hampstead, and continuing to actively campaign against apartheid before in 1972 becoming William Withering Professor of Medicine at Birmingham University.
There he established an endochrine department of "international standing" and expanded the medical school. In 1983 he became President of the Royal College of Physicians, a position he was to hold for six years, during which time he devoted his attention to improving medical standards.
From 1985 to 1993 he was also President of Wolfson College, Oxford, and from 1993-95 he was Professor of Medical Ethics at University of Queensland in Australia.
With the collapse of apartheid in South Africa in the early 1990s and the election of Nelson Mandela as president in 1994, he made numerous trips back there to report on the state of the country's medical schools.
Sir Raymond, born in 1923, passed away on April 22 in Oxford. In South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki said his death was a loss South Africa, the UK and humanity as a whole.
MF Chief Executive Officer Simon Carruth said: " We were honoured when Sir Raymond agreed quite soon after the Medical Foundation was founded to become one of our patrons. He combined medical scholarship with profound concern for victims of injustice. As well as giving moral support, he also made regular donations to our work."
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