Christopher John Earl

Christopher Earl is an outstanding presence in our profession. His early clinical training at Guy's Hospital and Queen Square, and especially the influence of Sir Charles Symonds, nurtured his natural talent as a physician. From his laboratory training with Robert Thompson at Guy's and in particular with Derek Denny-Brown at Harvard, he developed a lasting concern with the mechanisms of disorder and disease in the nervous system. He has, as all those who have seen him at work know, a remarkable memory for the individual case, the salient features of which he can summon up to illuminate the specific problem at hand. To witness him dissecting a history, incorporating the relevant clinical and investigative findings while discarding with a sure instinct the unhelpful, is an example which has influenced students of neurology of all ages over the past four decades. For the patient, his warm concern as he communicates - ever clearly - the results of his objective assessment and advises on management informed by all aspects of the patient's circumstances, is deeply reassuring, and has earned him a wide reputation. Christopher Earl's skills as a physician, his wisdom, his manifest enthusiasm for clinical medicine, and his personal integrity have determined the influential roles he has played in the hospitals with which he has been associated including the Royal London, the Middlesex and the National Hospital, Queen Square; as advisor or consultant to a number of Government agencies and the Air Force; in the Royal Society of Medicine as President of the Section of Neurology; in the Royal College of Physicians as Censor; and in our own Association as Secretary and President. We owe him much and this we symbolise in the award of the ABN Medal.

WI McDonald 12 April 1996