Professor Emeritus Julian Michael Whitehouse (1960)

Julian Michael Arthur Whitehouse (1960)

Michael came up to Queens’ to read Medicine in 1960. His Father, Grandfather and two Uncles were all members of Queens’. He went on to become one of the UK’s leading oncologists.

He met his wife Diane in the long vacation term 1961 and married her in 1965 in a wonderful ceremony in Geneva. They had one son Alex and two daughters, Fiona and Vanessa and 4 grandchildren. He was very proud of them all and what they have achieved.

The Medics from his year at Queens’ started a club called the Forc Club in 1963 when they were going off to complete their qualifications at various hospitals. The Club has had 62 annual dinners since then, missing only 2020. It is a wonderfully supportive group. Michael went from Queens’ to do his clinical training at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and graduated B.Chir in 1966 and MB in 1967. He then became Junior Registrar to Sir Ronald Bodley Scott, the Queen’s Physician and it was there when he first became involved in leukaemia research. He worked for his MD at the Institute of Cancer Research at Sutton supervised by Gordon Hamilton Fairley. He returned to Barts as an ICRF Research fellow and Honorary Senior Registrar after Gordon had been appointed as Professor of Medical Oncology (the first in the UK in 1971). Professor Fairley was then tragically killed by an IRA bomb in 1975. Michael then became Acting Director of the Unit until 1977 and was responsible for steadying the ship at a critically difficult time. He was involved in the design and implementation of trials for a number of haematological malignancies. He also excelled as a teacher.

In 1977 he moved to Southampton as Professor of Oncology to establish one of the first departments of Medical Oncology outside London. With funding from the Cancer Research Campaign over the next 20 years, he established his department as one of the pre-eminent centres for cancer research, pioneering treatments for lymphoma which had recently become curable with chemotherapy.

In 1995 Michael was appointed as Vice-Principal in the new Imperial College School of Medicine. His role was to supervise the merger of the Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School (CX&WMS) with Imperial College . He did this superbly and in 1997 CX&WMS became part of Imperial College. Michael was appointed Dean and did this until 2001 when he took on a key new role with the General Medical Council (GMC). From 2001-15 he was Chair for over 100 hearings of the GMC and subsequently Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service disciplinary panels. Michael felt very strongly that the GMC has a duty to protect the public and the public interest, which includes the maintenance of public confidence in the profession and the upholding of proper standards of conduct and behaviour.

Michael passed away on November 9^th 2025 aged 85. He was a keen sailor with a boat in the Scilly Isles. We all wish him “Bon Voyage”.

– Obituary by Sir Christopher Edwards