Professor Henry Malcolm Hodkinson 1931-2022

Professor Henry Malcolm Hodkinson was born on 28th April 1931, the son of Charles (a master butcher) and Olive Hodkinson of Stalybridge, Cheshire. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, where he gained a Somerset Thornhill scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford. It was around this time that he began his life-long interest in Judo. His medical education was completed at the Middlesex Hospital, London and he qualified in December 1955.

His training posts were mostly at the Central Middlesex and St. Stephen’s, Hospitals in London, which both had high reputations for the quality of their clinical teaching. Eventually he was senior registrar to Dr Abdullah, the geriatrician, at the Central Middlesex, and finally senior registrar to Dr Norman Exton-Smith at the Whittington Hospital, London.

Malcolm embarked on a series of clinical and professorial appointments of increasing importance. Between 1962 and 1970 he was consultant physician in geriatric medicine at the North Middlesex and St. Ann’s Hospitals. Here he ‘turned round’ a sluggish geriatric department. Some nurses were so aghast at the very idea of getting chronic sick patients out of bed that they resigned. His enthusiasm for writing blossomed, which was to lead to a formidable list of publications. It began, not with a clinical subject, but with ‘Judo’ co-authored with R. Bowen and published in 1963. It detailed the sport’s history and emphasised it as a means of physical and mental training.

In 1970 he was appointed consultant physician in geriatric medicine at the newly built Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, which included the Clinical Research Centre (part of the Medical Research Council). Once again, he set up a new department and produced a flow of research papers. He introduced Her Majesty the Queen to the geriatric ward when she opened the hospital.

His growing reputation resulted in being head hunted by Professor Keith Peters to set up yet another new geriatric department at the Hammersmith Hospital, initially as senior lecturer in 1978 and then professor in 1979. He remembered his inaugural lecture. He went early to the theatre to prepare but found the projection room locked. When it was opened, he found that the projector lamp required replacing. He now found there was no direct connection between the projectionist and himself so slide changes were initiated by hand signals!

In 1985 he succeeded Norman Exton-Smith as Barlow Professor of Geriatric Medicine at University College, London, where he continued research. He retired in 1991.

Malcolm published extensively. He authored or coauthored over 130 papers, wrote several books many of which were translated into a wide range of languages, and contributed chapters to over 30 books. In 1975 he was awarded Doctorate of Medicine at University of Oxford for work based on his evaluation of biochemical results in older people.

He strongly encouraged his junior medical staff to research and become geriatricians. helped to organise special weekend training programmes for geriatric senior registrars at the King’s Fund, London. The aim was to teach the wide-ranging administrative aspects of being a consultant: i.e., ‘all the things you were never taught at medical school’. All this was a new venture for the Fund whose founding ethos was to train hospital managers.

He was extensively involved with other organisations. He was advisor in geriatric medicine to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital 1964-1979, was Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Anniversary Research Fellow 1971, was elected RCP Fellow in 1974, Deputy Editor of Age and Ageing 1972-1981 and Editor 1981-1988. He was an RCP examiner for the Conjoint, Membership and Diploma of Geriatric Medicine examinations. He was a member of the Executive of the British Geriatrics Society and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries.

Malcolm served on many governmental and non-governmental committees, including the Department of Health Committee on the Medical Aspects of Food 1987-1991, and was chairman of its working parties on Fortification of Fats and Nutrition of the Elderly. He was a member of the research staff of the Carnegie Inquiry into the Third Age 1991-1993 and was a Governor of Research into Ageing. In 1968 he declined an invitation to give a medical opinion on the dying Portuguese dictator, Dr Salazar.

In retirement he forged a new career: law. He had been long fascinated by law and became immersed in medical expert witness work. He took a graduate diploma in law at Westminster University, completed a full-time bar course and was called to the bar in 2001, going on to pupillage, tenancy and practising medically related law. In 2009 he became a non-practising barrister because bar work diminished while requests for expert witness involvement steadily increased.

That Malcolm was a polymath is shown by his wide interests outside work. These included judo, antique glass and glass blowing. He was a skilful repairer of Staffordshire pottery and a maker of jewellery. As his early skill in Judo increased, he was one of the select few who received a highly prized invitation to train with Trevor Leggett, renowned Judo trainer. Malcolm achieved his 1st dan in 1955. He became editor of ‘Budokwai quarterly bulletin - Judo’ until 1962 when he became the Kano Society Club’s Chairman until 1967.

He also had a long-standing interest in Baroque music. This culminated in 2017 with his funding a new Dutch built 5-stop chamber organ for Brasenose College, his alma mater. It was described as: ‘the most exquisite instrument of this type currently residing in Oxford’.

He was a striking compact figure with a warm smile and well-trimmed beard. He often had firm views, particularly about modern geriatric medicine, which did not always endear him to others. His health in later life was marred when he nearly died from a burst aortic aneurysm, which was successfully treated at the Hammersmith Hospital.

He died on 7th November 2022. He is survived by his second wife, (his first marriage having ended in divorce), four daughters and nine grandchildren.