Claud Cole was born in Ningpo, China, where his father, Arthur Frederick Cole, was a surgeon. His mother, Emma Margaret née Gill, was the daughter of a farmer. Claud received his education at Winchester College, England, - where he was a classical scholar - and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained his MB BChir in 1935. After house jobs at St Mary’s Hospital, London, he joined the Colonial Medical Service and was posted to Tanganyika.
In 1938 he married Joan Barrule, née Bury, the daughter of a surgeon. There were no children of the marriage.
During the 1939-45 war he served as a regimental medical officer in the King’s African Rifles and Field Ambulance in Kenya and Abyssinia. He was promoted to major and medical specialist in the East African Army Medical Corps in 1941 and in 1943 became officer in command of No.3 medical division, Nyeri General Hospital. He was mentioned in despatches, and it was during this time that he described the occurrence of visceral leishmaniasis in East Africa.
After the war he worked as a medical specialist in Dar-es-Salaam until 1960, when he was appointed consultant physician to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London. He did his share of committee work at the hospital and was associated with the Bureau of Tropical Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tor many years. He was also consultant physician to the Colonial office, the Crown Agents and Overseas Development Administration. He served the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene as a member of council between 1960-71. In 1975 he retired from his hospital post but continued his consulting practice until 1980, when he finally retired to the Isle of Man.
Claud was an excellent physician and a good colleague to fellow consultants and numerous junior medical staff. A quiet man with conservative tastes and a staunch commitment to his family, friends and church, he delighted in his garden and his roses - wearing one in his buttonhole every day during the summer.
PEC Manson-Bahr
S G Wright
[Brit.med.J., 1989,299,1519]