David Wynne Davies was a consultant in general medicine based in Birmingham. The younger son of David Arwyn Davies, a general practitioner, and his wife Catherine Hilda (née Evans), Wynne was born in Loughor, South Wales, but the family moved to Carmarthen shortly after his birth. Wynne was awarded a choral scholarship to St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. He sang at the funeral of King George Vth and at the coronation of King George Vlth and Queen Elizabeth. He continued through his life to have a deep appreciation and love of music. He later spent five years at Radley College in Berkshire. Deciding on a career in medicine, he went on to the Middlesex Hospital, London.

After graduating he first became a house physician at Morriston Hospital, Swansea, and then from 1948 to 1950 did his National Service in the Royal Air Force, becoming a squadron leader. His postgraduate training continued with appointments as a house officer in psychiatry and neurology at the North Middlesex Hospital, Edmonton. He went on to work as a senior house officer in the department of neurology, Radcliffe Infirmary, Stoke Mandeville Hospital from 1952 to 1953. Registrar experience followed with an appointment at the East Glamorgan Hospital, Pontypridd, from 1953 to 1955, followed by an appointment as senior medical registrar at Llandough Hospital.

In 1962 Wynne was appointed as a consultant in general medicine to the Hollymoor Hospital, Birmingham. He had developed a special interest in psychological medicine and the interaction of internal medicine and psychiatric illness. His special interest was to try and identity traditional medical syndromes in patients institutionalized because of psychiatric illness and in whom concurrent medical conditions had been largely unrecognized. Expansion of this was facilitated by being appointed as a consultant to the Bromsgrove General and Redditch Hospitals. As the work grew, he became involved in teaching and by working in the three hospitals he was able to inaugurate postgraduate training.

Implementation of these services and training efforts became more arduous when he developed laryngeal cancer requiring a total laryngectomy. He had a Staffieri reconstruction and was able to continue to provide clinical care and continue organizing a successful postgraduate tutorial programme.

In 1989, as his time for retirement under the NHS approached, he received a letter from the permanent secretary to the Queen Mother on the occasion of a reunion of old St Georges choristers. This letter conveyed to him the sincere appreciation of the Queen Mother for the devoted services that Wynne had provided in so many spheres of medicine in the Midlands, wishing him good health and happiness in the years ahead. He continued to practice clinical medicine in the post retirement phase of his life, providing two sessions weekly as a consultant to the general medical department of Hollymoor Hospital, Birmingham.

Although medicine and music were important attributes of the profile of Wynne, no one facet was more important than family. He married Margaret Jones, a psychiatrist, in 1948. She provided great strength and courage to the entire family. They had six children, four of whom became doctors.

J E Davies

[Brit.med.J.,1997,314,1909]