AS A leading figure in child health for more than 30 years, James Lister helped to transform paediatric surgery from a field of hopes but few expectations to the modern advances of neonatal care.
A keen champion of the benefits of shared knowledge, Lister was generous with his expertise and, as Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Liverpool and later director of neonatal surgery at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, was responsible for nurturing a generation of specialists that now spans the globe.
It was at Alder Hey, where he was based during the 1970s, that Lister made groundbreaking progess in neonatal surgery — arguably the most complex area of child health. Liverpool’s mortality rates for neonatal operations fell from 40 per cent to less than 10 per cent under his direction, while he also produced more than 200 papers on life-threatening congenital deformities and newborn diseases such as oesophageal atresia, Hirschsprung’s disease and myelomeningocele.
Born in London in 1923, of a Scottish father and Irish mother, James Lister first showed an aptitude for classics as a scholar at St Paul’s School. Though he shared his accountant father’s stoicism and quietly diligent work ethic, he decided against pursuing a similar career, and instead followed his elder brother, John, to medical school.
He graduated from Edinburgh University Medical School in 1945, and immediately joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a surgeon lieutenant. While in the Navy he met and married Greta Redpath, his wife of 56 years. He continued his surgical training in Scotland, where he developed a particular interest in paediatrics, and in 1959 he became a research fellow at the University of Colorado.
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A natural teacher gifted with patience, Lister returned to Britain as a senior lecturer at the Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond Street and later as an honorary consultant at the Hospital for Sick Children and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children in London.
After spending a decade as a consultant at the Children’s Hospital in Sheffield, he was appointed to the chair of paediatric surgery at the University of Liverpool in 1974. As a leading specialist in a nascent field of medicine, Lister was also the natural choice to take charge of the Alder Hey’s neonatal surgical unit.
As the unit’s reputation grew, so young surgeons from around the world flocked to Liverpool to work for Lister. Known by the consultant as his “boys and girls”, those trained under Lister spread his knowledge across five continents.
In a profession of powerful egos, Lister remained the most gentle and selfeffacing of men. On his retirement in 1986, he personally shelved plans for a grand send-off, preferring to invite his former students from around the world to a simple family celebration at his home.
Free of his clinical commitments in retirement, Lister focused on working for the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, close to his home in Hownam, in the Scottish Borders. As well as supervising all surgical examinations, he also travelled widely, particularly in the Middle East and South-East Asia, to promote surgical education.
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He later became vice-president of the college, a position he held while president of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, which honoured him with the Denis-Browne Gold Medal. Among his many other posts was the chairmanship of the Specialist Advisory Committee on Paediatric Surgery of the UK, chairmanship of the European Union of Paediatric Surgical Associations and the vice-presidency of the World Federation of Associations of Paediatric Surgeons.
His international standing as a paediatric surgeon was also reflected in the 18 honorary fellowships bestowed on him by bodies including the American Academy of Paediatrics, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and national associations including those of India, Chile, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Scandinavia, Yugoslavia and Brazil.
He also served as associate editor, for Great Britain, of the Journal of Paediatric Surgery.
Lister’s wife, Greta, died in 2002, and his eldest daughter, Diana, in 1993. He is survived by his two younger daughters.
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Professor James Lister, paediatric surgeon, was born on March 1, 1923. He died on May 9, 2004, aged 81.