Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
William Drummond Macdonald Paton was born in Hendon, London, 5 May, 1917, and died 17 October, 1993. Son of a clergyman, Paton was educated at Winchester House, Brackley, and at Repton. At New College, Oxford, he obtained first class honours in Animal Physiology (1938). He proceeded to study at University College Hospital (UCH) where he qualified as a physician (1942), marrying, in the same year, Phoebe Margaret Rooke.
His subsequent appointments were: Pathologist, Midhurst Sanatorium (1943); Member of Scientific Staff, National Institute for Medical Research (1944-52); Reader in Applied Pharmacology, UCH (1952-54); Vandervell Chair of Pharmacology, Royal College of Surgeons, London (1954-59); Professor of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Balliol College (1959-84).
Other offices held include: Secretary of the Physiological Society (1951-57); Chairman, MRC Committee on Non-Explosive Anaesthetic Agents (1960-69); Member of the Medical Research Council (1963-67); Member of the Council of the Royal Society (1967-69); Delegate of the Clarendon Press, Oxford (1967-72); Chairman, MRC Working Party on Biochemical and Physiological Aspects of Drug Dependence (1968-75); Chairman, Editorial Board, British Pharmacological Society (1969-74); President, Institute of Animal Technicians (1969-74); Member, Central Advisory Council for Science and Technology (1970-71); Chairman, Committee on the Scheme for the Suppression of Doping in Horse-Racing (1970-71); Chairman, Research Defence Society (1972-77); Member, (Hunter) Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health (1978-79). In addition, Paton served as a Rhodes Trustee from 1968, and as a Wellcome Trustee from 1978. From 1953, Paton was consultant and adviser to the Director of Naval Physical Research, and was appointed as Civil Consultant in Underwater Physiology to the Navy in 1978, retiring from the role in 1982 on attaining the age of 65 years.
Amongst his many honours and awards were: FRS (1956), JP (1956), CBE (1968), FRCP (1969), FFARCS (Hon) (1975), and Knight bachelor (1979). He shared the Cameron Prize (1956) and the Gairdner Foundation Award (1959) with Eleanor Zaimis for their work on methonium compounds, and received the Gold Medal of the Society of Apothecaries (1979).