Early clinical pathologists: 3. Sidney Campbell Dyke.

Accepted for publication 5 July 1990 It is a delight to reflect on one of the truly great medical men of this century. Although I did not have the pleasure of meeting Sidney Dyke until the mid 1940s, I had been well tutored about his existence and his unique abilities by several senior colleagues. These included Frederick Hill, physician to Bruntcliffe Isolation Hospital, Morley, Georgina Bonser, clinical pathologist to Seacroft Hospital, Leeds, Alfred Gough, a distinguished Leeds surgeon and cofounder of the Association of Clinical Pathologists (ACP), and Peter Milligan, honorary physician and clinical pathologist to Doncaster Royal Infirmary, who had joined the ACP in the late 1920s. All spoke of a kindly and positive person who got things done and who believed strongly that laboratory based clinical expertise should be available not only in teaching hospitals but equally in non-teaching institutions. My then chief, LCD Herrmitte, pathologist to the Sheffield Royal Infirmary, kindly introduced me to Sidney Dyke some years before the start of the National Health Service. A pleasant friendship developed between us. I was impressed not only by Sidney's sparkling , kindly, and dominant aspect, but even more so by his real interest in my future career, which pleased me greatly. Detecting a Canadian intonation in his speech I discovered that he and his family had emigrated to Canada in 1898 when he was aged 12, that he had been awarded a BA degree with first class honours by the University of Toronto, and had proceeded initially to a career in teaching and journalism. Later winning a Rhodes Scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford, he graduated in natural sciences, again with first class honours, subsequently being awarded a scholarship to St Mary's Hospital, London. After joining King Edward's Horse as a trooper he returned to St Mary's, qualifying (LMSSA) in the shortest possible time to rejoin the army as a Captain in the RAMC in France. As I had held posts in Oxford and St Mary's Hospital and as my father had also served in the RAMC in the First World War we enjoyed many happy reminiscences over the years. After the war Sidney became assistant bacteriologist to the University of Durham, and subsequently went on to found a unit of clinical pathology at St Thomas's Hospital in 1920. Some four years later with the DM and MRCP behind him, the relevant committee had the good sense and fortune to appoint him