Born: 
15/08/1923
Died: 
21/07/2006
Specialty: 
Neurology
Designatory Letters: 
MRCSEng, LRCP Lond 1951, MRCP Edin 1955, Fellowship 1995

John Rundle who has died aged 83 will be remembered as a brilliant neurologist, a deeply compassionate doctor working for the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, the Helen Bamber Foundation for Survivors of Human Rights Violations, as a man of faith, humility and humanity, and as a man who could not and would not tolerate fools. As one observer remarked “…His inability to tolerate authority masquerading as knowledge, or to abide bullying was admirable – but did not necessarily advance his career.”

In his earlier years as a London schoolboy he thought he was slow until dyslexia was diagnosed. He served in the army but was invalided out in 1945 with a fractured pelvis. His older brother was killed in the final days of the war. He qualified in London, worked with Maurice Pappworth and served as a psychiatrist before embarking on training as a physician, making neurology his specialty.

In the 1960s he gave up medicine for seven years, running transport cafes and car dealerships and when he returned to medicine it was as a locum, or in his own private practice in Harley Street where he continued to work long after retirement age to finance the education of his children who came late in his life. In the 1990s he threw himself into the work of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture where his compassion, understanding and profound clinical skills were great assets. Those who worked him speak of his interest in MS and brain damage after torture, little of which ever appeared in the literature. In spite of poor eyesight and repeated illnesses he still flew his own plane until late in life.

His first marriage ended in divorce, his second in separation but he is survived by two children from each marriage.