William Hewitt Gillespie was a distinguished psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and former president of the British Psycho-Analytical Society and International Psycho-Analytical Association.

He was born in China, where his father was a minister of religion. Gillespie was educated in Edinburgh, at George Watson's School. He went on to Edinburgh University to study medicine, qualifying in 1929.

His first hospital appointments were in Edinburgh, Tooting Bec and at the Maudsley hospitals. In 1931 he received his diploma in psychological medicine.

In 1936 he was appointed as a consultant at the Maudsley Hospital. From 1937 to 1939 he was a psychotherapist at Hill End Hospital and at the Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency.

During the war he was a psychiatric specialist in the EMS, at Mill Hill Emergency Hospital.

In 1943 he was appointed psychiatrist in charge of the children's department at the Maudsley Hospital. He was elected president of the British Psycho-Analytical Society in 1950. From 1957 to 1961 he was president of the International Psycho-Analytical Association.

He married his wife Helen in 1932 and they had one son and one daughter. At the time of his election to the fellowship of the College he listed music and travel as his interests.

RCP editor