He joined the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and was elected a liveryman. He was involved in the British Diabetic Association and was consultant to the Pailingswick Hostel for children with diabetes. He worked at the Central Middlesex for nearly 30 years, his great interest being in diabetes. His father had been a consultant surgeon at the Middlesex and Donald decided at the age of 5 that he wanted to follow him. Sadly, in his last two years multiple cerebrovascular episodes robbed him of memory and powers of communication.įormer consultant physician Central Middlesex Hospital ( b 1917 q Cambridge/Middlesex 1942 (gold medal for surgery) MD, FRCP), died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm on 8 June 1998. A keen tennis player in his youth he gravitated to golf and became addicted. He also spent hours under vintage motor cars in an effort to improve their performance. His frequent dinner parties in his tiny London flat were gastronomic delights. He was an excellent cook and had a deep interest and knowledge of wine. As he matured he became a delightful hedonist.
He was also popular with the paramedical staff. A highly gregarious character, he had a flair for establishing rapport with whoever came within his orbit and he quickly became sought after as an anaesthetist. After a brief spell in the Royal Air Force he did a surgical post but soon decided that anaesthetics suited his temperament better than gynaecology. He leaves a wife, Doreen, three sons, and a daughter.įormer anaesthetist ( b Wigan 1918 q Cambridge/Middlesex 1944 DobstRCOG, DA), d 13 September 1998. A founder and president of the Sheffield Medics Rugby Club, he was also the president of the university boxing club and various cricket clubs. As a past president of the British Association of Forensic Medicine, he later served on the Wassermann Committee looking into pathology services for the police. It remains one of the most advanced facilities of its kind in Europe, and Usher’s achievements were recognised in 1980 with an OBE. He was responsible for the construction of the Sheffield Medicolegal Centre, which opened in 1977 and comprises a modern mortuary and necropsy facilities, the university department of forensic medicine, rooms for the clinical examination of victims of rape and assault, and a coroner’s court. Usher complained that many public mortuaries were worse than public conveniences, saying that they needed a government health warning over their doors. Humour was never far from the surface, moreover, and he was a well known raconteur and much sought after as after dinner speaker and lecturer.Ī major contribution was raising the facilities for forensic medicine and the status of its practitioners. As a result judges, juries, and the bar all trusted him. He was formidable to crossexamine, because he was fair. His manner in court was always cool and unflappable.
As a result of his involvement in Regina v Leonard Arthur (in which a paediatrician was accused of euthanasia of a baby with Down’s syndrome), the law was changed so that technical evidence had to be treated like alibi defence and disclosed to the court beforehand. He also played a major part in the investigations on the victims of the Flixborough explosion in 1974 and of the calamity at the Hillsborough football ground in 1989. Nearly 800 of these were murder investigations, and they included the Helen Smith case in Jeddah, one of the Yorkshire Ripper deaths, the Cannock Chase murder, the Confait case, the Perera dismemberment, and many others. He performed up to 1000 necropsies a year, amounting to over 27 500 during his life time. In 1964 he became head of the department of forensic pathology and consultant to both the Home Office and the South Yorkshire police force. After house jobs he started as a lecturer in 1961, but just beforehand spent 18 months as a ship’s doctor with the Blue Funnel line, going to the Far East and 1000 miles up the Amazon. He was born in a workhouse, where his father was the master, and this-together with almost losing a leg from osteomyelitis when he was a teenager-gave him a lifelong sympathy with disadvantaged people. Professor of forensic pathology Sheffield, 1978-90 ( b Chester le Street, Co Durham, 1930 q Newcastle 1954 FRCPath, DMJ OBE), d 31 June 1998.
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