Norman Henry Ashton, CBE, DSC(Lond), FRCP, FRCS, FRCPath, FRCOphth, FRS, KSTJ (1913-2000).

L ast year began with the loss of a very dear friend and colleague who had been an internationally renowned leader in ophthalmic pathology, Professor Norman H. Ashton of London (England). Of humble origins, young Norman left school at age 16 years to begin working as a laboratory assistant in a West London hospital. Subsequently, the head of the laboratory further encouraged Ashton’s interest in medicine, suggesting that he train to be a doctor. According to Alec Garner, MD, PhD, some initially considered that suggestion to have been made in jest, since “going to University wasn’t something the Ashtons did.” Nevertheless, Ashton did “read medicine” at King’s College London and Westminster Hospital Medical School (London). After qualifying by age 26 years, Ashton specialized in pathology and was appointed a pathologist at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital from 1941 to 1945. He then served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in West Africa and Egypt from 1945 to 1947.