The career of my father, Peter Venables, who has died aged 94, spanned the entire development of modern psychology. He made landmark contributions to the fields of schizophrenia and psychophysiology.
His most striking and innovative contribution in this area came in 2012, when he documented for the first time that early malnutrition at the age of three predisposed to schizotypal personality 20 years later in adulthood. His findings helped inform thinking about early-years support for disadvantaged families.
Peter was born in Ilfracombe, Devon, the son of Lilian (nee Harris) and Henry Venables, who ran a sweet shop. Peter attended Calday Grange grammar school, and at 16 he started work at Post Office Telephones as an apprentice. The assignment which gave him most pride was the installation of telecommunications equipment on HMS Largs, a ship that took part in every allied landing.
Called up in 1944, he joined the navy and worked as a radar technician. By this time, through left-wing mutual friends he had met Agnes Hawkins, known as Ness, who demonstrated recipes for meals on rations, and later worked on food books and campaigns. They married in 1948 and later, at weekends, extended a cottage in Caterham, Surrey and built its fitted furniture.
On demobilisation in 1947, Peter received a government grant and studied psychology at University College London, graduating with a first in 1951. He received his PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry in 1953.
His first job was with the Medical Research Council. He was then for three years a reader in the department of psychology at Birkbeck College, south London, where he was given a personal chair and finally appointed dean of the faculty of science (1968-74).
In 1972, with two colleagues, Peter set up the Mauritius Joint Child Health study. This study collected data on nearly 2,000 children and is probably the most extensive prospective psychophysiological study of mental health in the world. Two years later he was appointed to found the department of psychology at the University of York. He established the principles of the department: that psychology is most influential when it is quantitative, biological and experimental.
His early experience as a post office engineer and navy radar technician equipped him to think about the “wiring” of the brain in an analogous way. In 1980 he became president of the BPS and went on to receive the society’s lifetime achievement award in 2015.
He was a brilliant photographer who used to process large colour prints at home, and a generous supporter of many charities.
He was resilient and dignified in the face of Ness’s dementia. She died in 2010. Peter is survived by his sons, Andrew and me, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
