Hem Chandra Kumar Laljee MB PhD FRCPE
Hem Chandra Kumar Laljee MB PhD FRCPE
Born 10rd October 1932, in Mangelis, Madyar Pradesh, India
Died 18th January 2025, in York, of pneumonia, aged 93
A consultant neurophysiologist born in rural India, who worked his way to Vellore Christian medical school, and came to England for further qualifications, hoping to return. After difficulties in both returning to India and obtaining a medical senior registrar post, he worked as an innovator in general practice, but eventually obtained a consultant post in neurophysiology.
Hem Laljee was born to Indian Christian converts in a methodist enclave of rural East India. His father was a chauffeur who later became an optician and his mother a teacher, and he was the second of seven siblings. For much of his life he was to be challenged by both poverty and various forms of discrimination, which he overcame by innate intelligence and determination.
As a child he was sickly, suffering from tertian malaria and missing a year of schooling with smallpox, but he had a way of attracting the backing of his teachers, who supported his ambitions. And his driving ambition from childhood, influenced by the Christian missionary doctors, was to study medicine. He had the happy habit of passing all examinations with distinction, going to study for a BSc in science in Allahabad and gaining entrance to the Christian Medical College at Vellore where, deliberately and remarkably for the time, half the 50 students each year were female. The teaching accorded with the British curriculum. After qualification with the prizes in medicine and ophthalmology in 1958 and completing his year’s house posts, he obtained UK GMC certification.
His aim was to become a specialist physician in India. At the time, this was facilitated by obtaining the MRCP but he did not have the means to come to the UK. However, one of his patients, impressed by his care, left him sufficient money for the voyage, and he came by ship to Tilbury in December 1960, having obtained an offer of a house physician post in St Luke’s Hospital, Bradford through the good offices of one of his consultants in Vellore. This was followed by senior house officer and registrar posts, and in 1964 he obtained the MRCPE in his special interest, endocrinology.
This was a difficult time in the NHS, especially for foreign graduates, but he enjoyed his work and was made welcome by several local families, despite encountering racism when seeking accommodation. In the same year, 1964, he met and married Mary, then a trainee midwife, and this mixed marriage (which they felt obliged to keep secret for a time) inevitably caused some initial family difficulties. He pursued his intention to return to India, but this was frustrated first by lack of funds and then by his voyage being cancelled when the Suez canal was closed by President Nasser. However, he obtained a 3-year research post in endocrinology in Sheffield University which led to the award of a PhD.
Despite his qualifications, he found it impossible to obtain a senior registrar post and in 1967 accepted an offer of a partnership in general practice. He purchased a spirometer and electrocardiograph and even tried to buy an x-ray machine, working hard to improve the service. In 1972 he obtained sessional appointments in Leeds in epilepsy and neurophysiology, and in 1978 he at last obtained a senior registrar post there. The next year he was appointed consultant neurophysiologist in the Wessex region.
In 1990 the opportunity arose to return to Yorkshire and he was appointed consultant neurophysiologist in York, developing neurophysiology services across the county. As a consultant he was notably supportive of his younger colleagues and technicians and, still keen on development, even provided an electroencephalograph service for general practitioners. In 1995 he was elected a Fellow of the RCPE. He was persuaded to continue after the normal retiral age until 2000.
He had always loved working with his hands and was keen on DIY and gardening, even teaching himself how to rewire a house. He loved watercolour painting and became accomplished at woodturning and wood carving. He loved animals, from the Irish Setters that were family pets to the elephants he sponsored in Africa. He especially loved birds and enjoyed feeding them and encouraging them into the garden.
His beloved wife Mary, who had supported him through the hard times by working in nursing, died in 2020. He leaves a son David who works in IT, a daughter Ruth who is a general practitioner, and two grandsons.
Dr Ruth Guest
Prof Anthony Seaton