My father, Ian Wootton, who has died aged 97, was professor of chemical pathology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London and part of a golden age in the development of the discipline of clinical biochemistry, which concentrates on the analysis of bodily fluids.
He began as a research assistant at Hammersmith hospital, west London, to Earl King, the founding father of clinical biochemistry in Britain, and eventually took over as chair of chemical pathology on King’s death. King had written various editions of the textbook Microanalysis in Medical Biochemistry from 1946 onwards, and Ian co-authored the third edition with him.
He then singlehandedly produced the fourth and fifth versions after King’s death, before jointly producing the sixth with Heather Freeman. Translated into many languages, the book became an obligatory text in every clinical biochemistry department library throughout the world.
Ian also played a pivotal role in first establishing and then examining for the mastership in clinical biochemistry, and was founding secretary of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry, as well as founding treasurer of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry.
He was born in Tipton, in the West Midlands, to Charlotte (nee Phimester) and David Wootton; the family moved while Ian was a child to Weymouth in Dorset, and his mother later became the town’s first female mayor. His father taught maths at Weymouth grammar school, where Ian was educated. He won a scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, to study chemistry and physics but soon transferred to medicine, having feared that on graduation he might – like many other Oxbridge scientists – become involved in work on developing an atomic bomb.
He started work as a research assistant at Hammersmith hospital in 1945 before national service in the Royal Army Medical Corps took him to Egypt. Afterwards he returned to the UK to work again at Hammersmith, where he was based for the rest of his professional life, even when he spent a short period as chief scientist for the Department of Health and Social Security from 1972-73. He was awarded the Wellcome prize in 1977 for his contributions to the quality of laboratory practice.
In his spare time Ian was a beekeeper and a boat-builder, and on his retirement in 1982 he became a bookbinder. His lifelong interest in navigation led him to become a founding registrar for the British Sundial Society and he played a major part in mapping (and often correcting) sundials in the British Isles.
His wife, Veryan (nee Walshe), whom he married in 1946, died five years ago; she was also a biochemist. He is survived by their four children, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
