The British Medical Journal
Israel ("Issy") Kolvin
Bowlby emeritus professor of child and family mental health Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust (b Johannesburg, South Africa, 1929; q Witwatersrand 1955), died after a long illness on 12 March 2002.
During his medical training his funds ran out and he had to leave and work in various jobs, taking a BA in psychology in 1951, before completing his studies. During his term as house physician he became interested in
psychiatry and left South Africa with his wife to train in psychiatry at Edinburgh University. He then specialised further in child and adolescent psychiatry, becoming consultant in charge of the Nuffield Psychology and Psychiatry Unit in Newcastle upon Tyne. He was appointed to a personal chair in 1977.
His unit became well known for the quality of training and clinical service it provided, as well as the range of significant research that was carried out. This included a systematic attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic techniques with children, one of the largest studies in the world. Later he continued research into deprivation and resilience, based on the Newcastle Thousand Families Study.
In 1990 he was appointed to a personal chair as John Bowlby professor of child and family mental health at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and the child and family department of the Tavistock Clinic.
During his career he held many significant positions in government inquiries and as chairman of committees concerned with psychiatry and child mental health. He was treasurer of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, was made an honorary fellow of the college, and just before his death was awarded an honorary doctorate of education of the University of East London. He lectured widely all over the world at universities and psychiatric associations and his list of publications gives some indication of the breadth and scope of his research and clinical interests.
He was a very caring person, and an excellent teacher and supervisor to the many young child psychiatrists he trained and who have come to occupy senior positions in this country and overseas. He was always ready to help and he often offered and provided help to friends and colleagues. He worked extraordinarily hard at everything he did, and was singleminded and persistent in his examination of research data. He was passionate about injustice, whether to children and parents, or to colleagues who had been persecuted in other countries. He was a great doctor, who contributed much and personally gave a lot more. He will be missed. [Lionel Hersov]