John Lovett Doust was born in London, the son of William Henry Lovett Doust, a wool broker, and his wife Florence Jane, the daughter of Henry Walter Coltman, a company secretary. He was educated at Strand School and the University of London and his clinical studies were undertaken at King’s College Hospital. After house appointments at King’s and Horton Hospital, he joined the RAMC in 1943 and served for four years, first as a specialist in chemical pathology and then as medical specialist in military hospitals in the UK, France, Belgium and India.
In 1947 he was appointed medical registrar at the Maudsley Hospital, and received a Nuffield travelling scholarship in 1948 which enabled him to spend two years in the United States. On his return to England in 1950 he was appointed senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, and honorary consultant to the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals.
On the invitation of Aldwyn Stokes, Lovett Doust emigrated to Canada, and assumed a series of research responsibilities at the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital and the Queen Street Mental Health Centre. In 1966 the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital was closed and he joined the Clarke Institute as head of the clinical physiology unit, and head of the research section of psychophysiology. He also continued as head of research at the Queen Street Mental Health Centre.
Failing eyesight forced him to resign as chief of services of the Clarke’s Institute but, despite his disability, he continued to direct the work of the psychophysiology research section, producing a number of publications. At the time of his death he was professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, due to retire at the end of June, and named as professor emeritus in the department of psychiatry, to take effect on July 1, 1980.
In 1947 he married Katherine Louisa, daughter of Bernard deGrave Mourant, a tea planter. They had one son and four daughters. Lovett Doust was a soft-spoken, dignified and literate man. His interests included oriental medicine, philosophy and comparative religion.
FH Lowry
Sir Gordon Wolstenholme