View source for Robert Hunter, Baron Hunter of Newington

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{{Use British English|date=September 2017}}
'''Robert Brockie Hunter, Baron Hunter of Newington''' LLD [[Order of the British Empire|MBE]] [[Deputy Lieutenant|DL]] [[FRSE]] (14 July 1915 – 24 March 1994) was a [[physician]] and [[university]] administrator. He was the personal physician to [[Field Marshal Montgomery]], during the [[Second World War]] in North west Europe from 1944 to 1945. To friends and colleagues he was known as '''Bob Hunter'''.
==Life==
He was born on 14 July 1915 the son of Margaret Thorburn (née Brockie) and Robert Marshall Hunter. He was educated at [[George Watson's College]] in [[Edinburgh]] then studied Medicine at the [[University of Edinburgh]] graduating MB ChB in 1938. In the [[Second World War]] he served in the [[Royal Army Medical Corps]] and was later appointed as personal physician to Field Marshal Montgomery.<ref name="The Royal Society of Edinburgh">{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|access-date=16 November 2016|archive-date=24 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was demobilised with the rank of Major and returned to Edinburgh to work under [[Derrick Dunlop]].<ref name="rcplondon">{{cite web|url=http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/4996|website=munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk|title=Munks Roll Details for Robert Brockie (Baron Hunter of Newington in the District of the City of Edinburgh) Hunter|accessdate=10 February 2018}}</ref>
From 1947 to 1948 he was lecturer in Therapeutics, at the [[University of Edinburgh]], and in 1948 was lecturer in Clinical Medicine at [[St Andrews University]]. In 1948 he was elected a member of the [[Harveian Society of Edinburgh]]. He was appointed Professor of [[Materia Medica]], Pharmacology and Therapeutics from 1948 to 1967 and was also Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1958 to 1962. In 1963 he became a member of the Ministry of Health Committee on Safety of Drugs and served on this committee until 1968. In academia he moved to the [[University of Dundee]] in 1967 becoming Professor of Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, from 1967 to 1968. He was then appointed Vice-Chancellor of the [[University of Birmingham]] in 1968, a post he held until 1981. From 1973 to 1980 he was a member of the [[DHSS]] Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health.<ref name="obit"/>
Following the revelations in 1962 of the [[thalidomide]] disaster of the three previous years Hunter was appointed to the Committee on the Safety of Drugs and was Chairman of the Clinical Trials Sub-Committee.
In 1964 he was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]]. His proposers were [[Anthony Elliot Ritchie]], [[George Howard Bell]], [[Ernest Geoffrey Cullwick]] and [[James Macdonald (botanist)|James Macdonald]].<ref name="The Royal Society of Edinburgh"/>
Following his peerage in 1978 he was an active participant in the [[House of Lords]] and was a vocal supporter of the [[National Health Service]].
He died of a heart attack while in his garden in [[Birmingham]] on 24 March 1994.<ref>Independent (newspaper) obituary 29 March 1994</ref>
==Honours & Arms==
*11 October 1945 - appointed a [[Member of the Order of the British Empire]] (MBE)<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=37302 |date=11 October 1945 |page=4993 |supp=y}}</ref>
*1 November 1977 - [[Knight Bachelor|Knighted]]<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=47374 |date=11 November 1977 |page=14201}}</ref>
*17 July 1978 - created a [[Life Peer]] as '''Baron Hunter of Newington''', ''of [[Newington, Edinburgh|Newington]] in the District of the City of [[Edinburgh]]''<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=47596 |date=20 July 1978 |page=8701}}</ref>
{{Infobox COA wide
|escutcheon = Vert two Greyhounds courant in pale Argent collared of the first on a Chief Or a Book expanded proper binding and fore-edges Gules between two Hunting Horns of the first stringed of the Fourth
|crest = A Peregrine Falcon with wings expanded proper
|supporters = On either side a Bay Stallion Hunter proper <ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage |date=1985}}</ref>
}}
==Family==
He was married in 1940 to Kathleen Margaret Douglas with whom he had three sons and one daughter.
<ref name="obit">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lord-hunter-of-newington-1432592.html|title=Obituary: Lord Hunter of Newington|work=The Independent|first=Owen|last=Wade|date=30 March 1994|accessdate=3 December 2012}}</ref><ref>[http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/obits_alpha/hunter_lord.pdf Obituary Royal Society]</ref>
==References==
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{{succession box|title=Vice-Chancellor of the [[University of Birmingham]] |years= 1968–1981|before=[[Robert Aitken (university administrator)|Robert Aitken]]|after=[[Edward Marsland]]}}
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[[Category:Academics of the University of Dundee]]
[[Category:1915 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:Vice-chancellors of the University of Birmingham]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of St Andrews]]
[[Category:Crossbench life peers]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]]
[[Category:People educated at George Watson's College]]