OBITUARY Muscle Nerve 36: 738–739, 2007

JOHN NEWSOM-DAVIS, CBE, MD, FRS

KERRY MILLS, PhD

Academic Unit of Clinical Neurophysiology, Guy’s, King’s & St. Thomas’ Schoolof Medicine, King’s College Hospital, London SE5 9RS, UK

John Newsom-Davis

Professor John Newsom-Davis, an astute and sen-tient physician, was one of Britain’s foremost clinicalneuroscientists who made significant advances in thepathogenesis and clinical management of autoim-mune neurological disease. His work on the autoim-mune nature of myasthenia gravis led the way tosimilar contributions to the Lambert–Eaton myas-thenic syndrome and to autoimmune neuromyoto-nia.

John Michael Newsom-Davis (or JND as he wasalmost universally called) was born in 1932 and afterinitial education at Sherborne School went on toPembroke College, Cambridge, to read natural sci-ences. He then moved to London and qualified inmedicine after completing his clinical studies at TheMiddlesex Hospital. His education was interruptedby a 2-year spell of national service in the Royal AirForce during which he became a pilot and flewMeteors—an achievement of which he always re-mained justly proud.

His first research, leading to an MD degree (aresearch degree in the UK), was with Professor TomSears at the Institute of Neurology, Queen Square,

on the physiology of breathing. This began a longassociation with physiology and physiologists, for herecognized the contribution that they can make tothe diagnosis of disorders of neuromuscular trans-mission. He spent a year at the Cornell MedicalCenter in New York, with Professor Fred Plum, be-fore returning to the UK to finish his neurologytraining. Appointed as consultant neurologist jointlyat The National and Royal Free Hospitals, London,in 1970, he soon established an active researchgroup and became the first MRC Clinical ResearchProfessor in 1980. During this time the autoimmunenature of myasthenia was established and successfultreatment with plasma exchange was begun. Alsoduring this time he worked on the pathogenesis ofthe Lambert–Eaton myasthenic syndrome, confirm-ing the autoimmune nature of this condition andclarifying its association with small-cell lung cancer.This led the way to a wider appreciation of thepathogenesis of several paraneoplastic neurologicalsyndromes.

In 1987, JND moved to Oxford with his researchteam. He was appointed to The Action ResearchChair of Clinical Neurology with a fellowship at St.Edmund Hall. He again demonstrated the ability towin research grants to sustain his team, which hasremained for the most part intact to the present day.His clinical work was focused on a weekly MyastheniaGravis clinic at which up to five new patients were

Correspondence to: Kerry Mills; e-mail: prof.krmills@mac.com

© 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI10.1002/mus.20933

738 John Newsom-Davis MUSCLE & NERVE December 2007

seen. This proved highly demanding for the neuro-physiologists working alongside him. He understoodthe difficulty of “single-fiber EMG under pressure”;but I well remember him looking over my shoulderat the EMG machine saying, “another abnormal fi-ber should do it”. His 11 years in Oxford saw thedevelopment of clinical neuroscience not only inautoimmune disease but also genetics and neuroim-aging. He was instrumental in establishing the Cen-tre for Functional MRI of the brain. His group hadearlier developed assays for antibodies against ace-tylcholine receptors and anti–voltage-gated calciumchannels, and these were offered as a diagnosticservice. This was extended to anti–voltage-gated po-tassium channels involved in the pathogenesis ofautoimmune neuromyotonia and most recently toanti–muscle specific kinase, thought to be patho-genic in some cases of myasthenia.

As he “retired” from the Chair in Oxford, JNDassumed the editorship of Brain, the premier UKneurological journal, taking it successfully into theelectronic age. He also continued to lecture aroundthe world and with his work in Oxford, visiting thelaboratories and staffing a weekly myasthenia clinic.Most recently, in collaboration with an internationalgroup of myasthenia experts, he took on the task ofobtaining funding (from the US National Institutesof Health) and coordinating a multicenter trial with80 participants to determine the place of thymec-tomy in the management of myasthenia gravis.

John Newsom-Davis acted as an advisor, not onlyto the many trainees who passed through his hands,but also to influential bodies such as the MedicalResearch Council, the British Council, the RoyalCollege of Physicians, and the Muscular DystrophyGroup (UK). Many honors were heaped upon him:he was President of the Association of British Neu-rologists (1999-2000), winning the ABN medal in1999; elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (1991); anhonorary member of the American Academy of Neu-rology; and a foreign member of the Institute ofMedicine of the US National Academy of Sciences.In 1996 he was made a Commander of the BritishEmpire (CBE) for services to medicine. His youthfulappearance, which he retained to the last, was asource of disbelief among colleagues. One can onlyconclude that his infectious enthusiasm and bound-less energy in some way affected the normal agingprocess.

John married Rosemary Schmid in 1963. Theyhad two daughters, one of whom has been involvedin neuroscience research, and a son who is a physi-cian. He had seven grandchildren who were a sourceof great delight to John and his close-knit family.John tragically died in a car accident on August 24,2007, in Adjud, Romania. He will be rememberedwith great affection by the countless physicians andscientists who came under his influence and also byhis patients, who have lost a dear friend.

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