John Raymond Hobbs

John Raymond Hobbs MRCS, FRCP, FRCPath, FRCPaed (17 April 1929 – 13 July 2008) was a professor who was at the forefront of the techniques of clinical immunology, protein biochemistry and bone marrow transplantation, specifically in child health.

John Hobbs was born in Aldershot.

He was the third son of four male children of a soldier's family.

His family moved around considerably due to his father's career in the British Army.

The family eventually settled in his father's home town of Plymouth in the county of Devon.

During the Second World War, John, along with his three brothers Frederick, William and Dennis, were evacuated from blitz-torn Plymouth to Penzance.

He left school at 16 and worked as a pathology laboratory assistant and did his National Service in Egypt with the British Army Medical Corps.

After National Service, John used the money he had saved from his army sergeant's pay to put himself into Plymouth and Devonport Technical College where he achieved an External Inter.BSc within 9 months, gaining a state scholarship to study medicine, where he chose the Middlesex Hospital in London and won 7 prizes.

He specialised in Pathology and in 1963 was appointed consultant at Hammersmith Hospital, London.

7. Hobbs J.R., Bayliss, R.I.S., MacLagan, N.F. The routine use of 132-I in the diagnosis of thyroid disease (1963) Lancet, i, 8–13.

(M.D. Thesis, London)

Hobbs, J. R. Displacement bone marrow transplantation and immunoprophylaxis for genetic diseases.Adv.

Intern.

Med.

From 1968–1996 Hobbs received 4 national prizes, 15 international awards and 4 honorary fellowships

In 1970 he was appointed as Professor of Chemical Pathology at Westminster Medical School.

In the early 1970s Professor Hobbs's Westminster team were doing ground breaking work.

In 1970 the world's first successful intended stem cell transplant for a previously fatal human disease.

In 1971 the first British Bone Marrow Transplant using bone marrow from a matching sibling.

In the following year a transplant was successful using the bone marrow from father to son.

However, Hobbs had founded the COrrection of GEnetic diseases by Transplantation or COGENT movement, with a charitable trust which attracted £13 million 1971–2007.

The remaining balance, with the assistance of the late Professor Anthony Oakhill, was used to create a new unit at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in the city of Bristol, and so allowing work to be continued.

It is now headed by Colin Steward.

As for the children who were treated by Hobbs's bone marrow team at the Westminster hospital, most of these children now enjoy full lives as adults.

Hobbs became an enthusiastic and accomplished teacher and accepted invitations to lecture (over 30 endowed) in 58 different countries (in over half of Europe's medical schools, 25 in the US and over 30 of the Commonwealth universities)He was given the status of visiting professor on over 25 occasions and he contributed to many international meetings and committees.

He was re-invited many times and Presidential status was awarded to him in 5 different scientific meetings.

He acted as an advisor to Health Ministers in Russia, Poland, Uruguay, Hong Kong, China and Peru.

Throughout 30 years as a recognised teacher Hobbs encouraged his juniors.

134 university higher degrees were achieved by trainees for work completed within the departments he headed; 48 full university chairs have been awarded to such staff; 70 have become members or fellows of the royal College of Pathologists (including 18 non-medical); 12 scientific staff were helped to medical degrees; together with 42 students contemporary with his daughters.

John Raymond Hobbs was third eldest of four brothers.

He was also the father of three daughters and eight grandchildren.

In April 1973 Hobbs and his team were able to achieve the world's first bone marrow transplant using a matched but unrelated volunteer donor.

With the success of this procedure steps were taken by professor Hobbs's team to set up the world's first unrelated bone marrow donor register.

The tissue typing specialist of the team, David James, was instrumental in the setting up and the administration of this ground breaking register which was later named after Anthony Nolan.

It established the future use of unrelated donors to patients, so far for over 10,000 people.

This initiative was the blue print which would be copied around the world.

126 Valdimarrson, J.H., Higgs, J.M., Wells, R.S., Yamamura, M, Hobbs, J.R., Holt, P.J. Immune abnormalities associated with chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, (1973) Cell Immunol.

33 (1987) 81–118

The Westminster team completed 285 transplants before it and its specialist unit's sudden, unexpected, enforced closure, effectively in autumn of 1992.

Tragically, this left a waiting list of children with virtually nowhere else in Britain to go for treatment of their genetic diseases and inborn errors.