Anthony Fairclough Lever

Anthony Fairclough Lever (Avatar)

1929-2018

Vol XII

Web

Anthony Fairclough Lever

1929-2018

Vol XII

Web

b.18 March 1929 d.25 March 2018

BSc Lond(1952) MB BS Lond(1955) MRCS FRCP(1969) FRSE FRCPG DSc Glas(2006)

Tony Lever was an honorary consultant at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, director of the Medical Research Council's blood pressure research unit in Glasgow between 1967 and 1994 and, later Professor Emeritus in the department of cardiovascular and medical sciences at the University of Glasgow. 

Anthony Fairclough Lever was born on 18 March 1929 in Epsom, Surrey, England, the son of James, a landscape artist and Pam (née Skelton). He was educated at Dorset House preparatory school and Hurstpierpoint College, both in West Sussex. At medical school in London he gained a BSc in 1952 and MB BS in 1955, with gold medals in medicine and pathology. 

Following graduation his junior roles were at St Mary’s Medical Unit (1955) and the National Heart Hospital (1956) before returning to St Mary’s for 9 years, firstly as research fellow, then lecturer, originally working with Sir George Pickering, a major figure in cardiovascular research, particular hypertension. 

His detailed obituary in the journal Hypertension written by colleagues Professor Anna Dominiczak, John Connell and Ian Robertson explains the key contributions Tony and colleagues were making to medical research and improving patient care at that time: 

In 1956, George Pickering moved to Oxford as Regius Professor of Medicine, and Stanley Peart took over the Medical Unit at St Mary’s Hospital. Peart had purified and sequenced Ang II (angiotensin II)—the product of the action of the renal enzyme renin and the most potent vasopressor agent known at the time. Tony Lever, together with J. Ian S. Robertson and Jehoiada J. Brown, joined the research team as a clinician scientist to address the challenge of whether renin and angiotensin were the cause of the hypertension caused by renal artery constriction. In 1964, Tony Lever and Ian Robertson devised the world’s first reliable and sensitive method for the assay in blood of the enzyme renin, secreted by the kidney.1 

In 1967, Tony was invited by the Medical Research Council to become director of its newly created Blood Pressure Unit in Glasgow. There, he was responsible for developing the Unit into an internationally renowned centre of excellence, which attracted talented research fellows from around the world, many of whom became leaders in the field when returning to their home countries. In 1994 the Unit closed on Tony’s retirement but the research stream has carried on in other forms.  

During his career Tony published over 400 papers and book chapters and won many awards. He gave the RCP’s Croonian Lecture in 2008 on Sodium in Hypertension. 

A salmon and trout fishing enthusiast, Tony also listed walking as another interest.  

Tony Lever died on 25 March 2018. He is survived by his wife, Rosemary (née Pumfrey, whom he married in 1963), children Catherine and Michael, and grandchildren, Lulu and Sam. 

RCP Editor 

References/further reading 

1. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.118.115571 (Accessed 16 February) 2023 

2. https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/16159371.obituary---anthony-lever-cardiovascular-scientist-pioneered-new-forms-research/ (Accessed 16 February 2023) 

3. https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2383 (Accessed 16 February 2023)