Gervais Joly Dixon was a neurologist based in Glasgow. He was born into an academic family in Dublin - his father was a professor and a fellow of the Royal Society. Gervais was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and graduated in 1935. In 1939, after junior medical posts at Charing Cross Hospital in London, he was appointed as a registrar to the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square. He was later appointed consultant physician at Warrington General Hospital in 1942. He served in the RAMC from December 1946 until April 1948 where he was in charge of the medical division of the Military Hospital at Catterick Camp.

In 1948, at the inception of the National Health Service, he was appointed as a consultant neurologist to the Victoria Infirmary, Stobhill General Hospital, the Southern General Hospital, and to the neurosurgical unit, Killearn Hospital, Glasgow, giving him a wide clinical remit. He continued in these posts until his retirement from the NHS in 1974. He combined his NHS work with private consulting practice.

In 1964 he had a hip fracture which immobilised him for many months, and thereafter he worked against considerable pain and discomfort.

Although he regularly attended academic meetings at the Institute of Neurological Sciences, Glasgow, Dixon was not of a gregarious nature and he did not form close relationships with consultant colleagues, many of whom were much younger than he. He married his wife Kay in 1942 and they had one daughter and one son. After his retirement to Eye, Suffolk, he continued to work as a locum in general practice for some years. He died of cancer of the oesophagus.

Ian D Melville

[Brit.med.J., 1997,314,150]