Name Robert Kendell | Died 2002 | |
Books The Role of Diagnosis in Psychiatry, The Concept of Disease and Its Implications for Psychiatry | ||
Robert Evan Kendell, CBE FRSE FRCP FRCPsych (28 March 1935−19 December 2002) was a Welsh psychiatrist. He was Chief Medical Officer of Scotland 1991−96, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists 1996−99.
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Background
He was born on 28 March 1935 in Yorkshire, the son of teachers and spent some of his childhood in Wales. He was educated at the Mill Hill School in London, then won a scholarship to Cambridge Medical Schoolwhere he was awarded a Double First in the Natural Sciences Tripos. After a brief stint in internal medicine he joined the Maudsley Hospital and trained under Sir Aubrey Lewis. Kendell was later awarded the Gaskell Medal.
Aged 38 he was appointed to the chair of psychiatry in Edinburgh. In 1986 he was made the Dean of the Medical School and during his four years in this post he supervised a period of expansion. In 1991 he was appointed the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland. In 1997 he was elected the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and served for a three-year term. As Chief Medial Officer, he worked to build awareness of the influence of diet and smoking on health, as well as made efforts in the fights against Bovine spongiform encephalopathy and HIV/AIDS.
Research
He published more that 200 papers during his career, continuing after he had retired from employment. Much of his work focussed on the classification and diagnosis of mental disorders
Awards and honours
He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2002. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE). He was awarded the Paul Hoch Medal of the American Psychopathological Association; and the Marce Medal. He was a member of the World Health Organisation's Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health for 12 years.
Death
On 19 December 2002 he collapsed and died later that day, of an unsuspected brain tumour.