Changes

|publisher=Royal College of Physicians

}}</ref><ref>{{REFweb

}}</ref>

}}</ref> His mother was Mary Mitchell. He was the great-nephew of historian James Gairdner. Gairdner was named for his father's late friend, Douglas M. Thornton who had died three years before Gairdner's birth. Gairdner had four siblings. His very early life was spent in Egypt where his father was a missionary.<ref name="read">{{REFjournal

|last=Gairdner

|title=History opened my eyes

|journal=British Medical Journal (Clinical research ed.)

He read chemistry at the University of Oxford but switched to medicine, did clinical training at Middlesex Hospital and was awarded his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery Degree in 1936.<ref name="obit"/> He did his residency (house physician) in paediatrics at The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street in Bloomsbury, London in 1937-8.<ref name="obit"/><ref name="spence"/> Gairdner described his experience there in a memoir written a half-century later. He wrote, "I recall the sheer enjoyment of working there, but also the periods of overwhelming exhaustion."<ref>{{REFjournal

|last=Gairdner

|title=Great St. Ormond Street 50 years ago

|journal=Archives of Disease in Childhood

His obituary in the ''British Medical Journal'' described Gairdner as "an outstanding figure in the development of British Paediatrics after the second world war". His statistics from the special care baby unit were "invaluable in monitoring trends in perinatal mortality and morbidity since 1950." He constantly produced important research over a range of topics and he improved the management of respiratory problems in the newborn. He was appointed editor of the ''Archives of Disease in Childhood'' in 1964, a position he held for 15 years, until his retirement in 1979. During that time the journal "steadily increased in size, scientific content, and international reputation."<ref name="obit"/><ref name="spence"/><ref name="editorial">{{REFjournal

|last=Robinson

|title=Douglas Gairdner, editor of the ''Archives'' 1964–79

|journal=Archives of Disease in Childhood

Gairdner's 1949 article, ''The Fate of the Foreskin: A Study of Circumcision'',<ref name="fate1949">{{REFjournal

|last=Gairdner

|title=The fate of the foreskin: a study of circumcision

|journal=British Medical Journal

}}</ref> was described as "a model of perceptive and pungent writing."<ref name="spence" /> It concluded that if circumcision became uncommon it would result in "the saving of about 16 children's lives lost from circumcision each year in this country..."<ref name="fate1949"/> According to Wallerstein, the article "began to affect the practice of circumcision by the British".<ref>{{REFjournal

|last=Wallerstein

|title=Circumcision: the uniquely American medical enigma

|journal=The Urologic clinics of North America

}}</ref> Gairdner was pleased with the success of the article.<ref name="obit" /> Gairdner also opposed unnecessary tonsillectomy, drawing attention to the risks of the operation at the time (1951)<ref>{{REFjournal

|last=Gairdner

|title=Tonsillectomy

|journal=British Medical Journal

}}</ref> and suggested more conservative ways of treating repeated respiratory infections.<ref>{{REFjournal

|last=Gairdner

|title=Tonsillectomy

|journal=British Medical Journal

Gairdner's research interests included Schōnlein-Henoch purpura,<ref>{{REFjournal

|last=Gairdner

|title=The Schönlein-Henoch syndrome (anaphylactoid purpura)

|journal=The Quarterly Journal of Medicine

}}</ref> nephrotic syndrome, [[Circumcision|circumcision]], and the formation of red blood cells in infancy.<ref>{{REFjournal

|last=Gairdner

|etal=yes

|title=Blood formation in infancy. Part I. The normal bone marrow

}}</ref> of the British Medical Association in 1978 for his creative editing of the ''Archives of Disease in Childhood''.<ref name="editorial" /> Gairdner vacationed several times in Portugal as guest of the Portuguese Academy of Paediatrics where he won the respect of the local paediatricians who called him "the best paediatric ambassador who ever came to Portugal."<ref>{{REFjournal

|last=Ramos de Almeida

|title=A tribute to Douglas Gairdner

|journal=Archives of Disease in Childhood