Paediatricians and many of their patients will learn will sadness of the death of Dr ‘Connie’ Forsyth at the age of 83.
Educated at George Watson’s College, Edinburgh where her father was a science teacher she graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University with an honours degree and within three years of graduating had passed, at first attempt, both MRCP Edin and MRCP Glass. Working under Professor (later Sir) Derrick Dunlop she gained her MD and then pursued further post-graduate study in Toronto and Great Ormond Street, London.
Appointed to the department of child health in Dundee in 1955, and later Reader in Child Health, she soon established her international reputation in the field of paediatric endocrinology and, in particular the field of corticosteroid metabolism in children.
Until failing health stopped her from doing so she was a keen swimmer and golfer, and enjoyed motoring the length and breadth of Europe. She was known as a dab hand at whist, and a faithful member of St. Mary’s Church, Dundee where she had a reputation for taking notes during the sermons to discuss later with the minister.
In an age when “characters” in medicine seem to be fewer and fewer, she will be remembered as an outstanding one.