Robert Tattersall, a Diabetes Physician Ahead of His Time

The clinical and research landscape in the U.K. was dominated in the 1970s and 1980s by clinician scientists. Many worked as full-time employees of the National Health Service rather than universities. During a period when health services were under less pressure than today, they were able to find sufficient time to design clinical studies to answer important research questions that occurred to them while treating their patients. They also inspired a generation of junior colleagues to join their specialty and become clinical researchers themselves. In many ways it was a golden age for clinical diabetes research in Britain. Clinician scientists within the diabetes field who attained international stature include John Ward and Peter Watkins, who made major advances in diabetic neuropathy; Harry Keen, who pioneered the use of insulin pumps and introduced microalbuminuria as a sensitive test for diabetic nephropathy; and George Alberti (1), who demonstrated how low-dose insulin could be used as a practical and effective treatment for diabetic ketoacidosis. But one individual who epitomized the clinician researcher was Robert Tattersall. His contributions were many and varied and led to improved care worldwide, while the diabetes unit he developed in Nottingham came to be recognized as one of the best in the country.

Early Years

Robert was born in London in July 1943, the only child of Stanley Tattersall and Edith Booth, who were psychiatrists. He was brought up in the grounds of Bucks County Mental Hospital, where his father worked in a senior administrative position. He was educated at Charterhouse School (a private boarding school) and trained in medicine at the University of Cambridge and St Thomas’ Hospital, London. After qualification he undertook his first junior post at St Thomas’ before moving to Nottingham General Hospital, where he met his future wife, Bridget Jack, while they were both doctors in …