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   '''Douglas Montagu Temple Gairdner''', FRCP (19 November 1910 – 10 May 1992) was a Scottish paediatrician, research scientist, academic and author. Gairdner was principally known for a number of research studies in neonatology at a time when that subject was being developed as perhaps the most rewarding application of basic physiology to patient care, and later his most important contributions as editor, firstly editing ''Recent Advances in Paediatrics'' and then of ''Archives of Disease in Childhood'' for 15 years, turning the latter into an international journal of repute with its exemplary standards of content and presentation.<ref>{{cite journalREFjournal | last= | first= | coauthors= |title=Douglas Montagu Temple Gairdner |journal=Munks Roll – Lives of the Fellows | volume=IX |dateissue=21 August 2013 |volumepages= IX 186 |url=http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/1685 | quote= | pubmedID= | pubmedCID= |pageDOI= | date=1862013-08-21 |accessdate=2018-02-16 February 2018 |publisher=Royal College of Physicians |location=Royal College of Physicians}}</ref><ref>{{cite webREFweb |titlequote=Dr Douglas Gairdner |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228053952/https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/paediatrician/dr-douglas-gairdner | title=Dr Douglas Gairdner |websitelast=The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health | first= |publisher=The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health |accessdatework=10 April 2018 |date=2 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228053952/https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/paediatrician/dr03-douglas-gairdner02 |archiveaccessdate=2018-date=28 December 2017|dead04-url=yes10}}</ref>

Gairdner, the son of William Henry Temple Gairdner, an Anglican missionary, and grandson of Sir William Tennant Gairdner, KCB, a medical doctor and professor, was born in Scotland on 19 November 1910.<ref name="obit">{{cite journal REFjournal | last= | first= | coauthors= | title=Obituary, D M T Gairdner | journal= BMJ : British Medical Journal|year= 1992 | volume= 304 | issue= 6839 | pages= 1438–1439 | url= | quote= | pubmedID=1882198 | pubmedCID= | doiDOI= 10.1136/bmj.304.6839.1438 | pmcdate= 1882198 1992 | accessdate=}}</ref><ref name="spence">{{cite journal REFjournal | last= | first= | coauthors= | title= The James Spence Medal | journal= Archives of Disease in Childhood|year= 1977 | volume= 52 | issue= 2 | pages= 85–86 | doiurl= | quote= | pubmedID= | pubmedCID=1546185 | DOI= 10.1136/adc.52.2.85 | pmcdate= 1546185 1977 | accessdate=}}</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">{{cite journal REFjournal |last=Gairdnerauthor | first= Gairdner D . | coauthors= | title= History opened my eyes | journal= British Medical Journal (Clinical research ed.)|year= 1982 | volume= 284 | issue= 6322 | pages= 1105–6 | url= | quote= | pubmedID=20741753 | pubmedCID=1497911 | doiDOI=10.1136/bmj.284.6322.1105 | pmiddate= 207417531982 | pmcaccessdate=1497911}}</ref> Gairdner's father died in 1928, when Gairdner was 17 years of age.

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>{{cite journal REFjournal |last=Gairdnerauthor | first= Gairdner D . | coauthors= | title= Great St. Ormond Street 50 years ago | journal= Archives of Disease in Childhood|year= 1988 | volume= 63 | issue= 10 | pages= 1272–5 1272-1275 | url= | quote= | doipubmedID=3058049 | pubmedCID=1779036 | DOI=10.1136/adc.63.10.1272 | pmiddate= 30580491988 | pmcaccessdate= 1779036}}</ref>

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">{{cite journal REFjournal |last=Robinsonauthor | first= Robinson RJ | coauthors= | title= Douglas Gairdner, editor of the ''Archives'' 1964–79 | journal= Archives of Disease in Childhood|year= 1979 | volume= 54 | issue= 11 | pages= 817–9817-819 | url= | quote= | doipubmedID=393179 | pubmedCID=1545590 | DOI= 10.1136/adc.54.11.813 | pmiddate= 393179 1979 | pmcaccessdate= 1545590 }}</ref>

Gairdner's 1949 article, ''The Fate of the Foreskin: A Study of Circumcision'',<ref name="fate">{{cite journal REFjournal |last=Gairdnerauthor | first=Gairdner DM | coauthors= | title= The fate of the foreskin: a study of circumcision | journal= British Medical Journal|year= 1949 | volume= 2 | issue= 4642 | pages= 1433–7 1433-1437 | url= | quote= | pubmedID=15408299 | pubmedCID=2051968 | doiDOI= 10.1136/bmj.2.4642.1433 | pmiddate= 15408299 1949 | pmcaccessdate= 2051968 }}</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="fate"/> According to Wallerstein, the article "began to affect the practice of circumcision by the British".<ref>{{cite journal REFjournal |last=Wallersteinauthor | first= Wallerstein E . | coauthors= | title= Circumcision: the uniquely American medical enigma | journal= The Urologic clinics of North America|year= 1985 | volume= 12 | issue= 1 | pages= 123–32 123-132 | url= http://www.cirp.org/library/general/wallerstein/ | quote= | pmidpubmedID=3883617 | pubmedCID= | DOI= | date=1985 | accessdate=}}</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>{{cite journal REFjournal |last=Gairdnerauthor | first=Gairdner D . | coauthors= | title= Tonsillectomy | journal= British Medical Journal|year= 1951 | volume= 1 | issue= 4700 | pages= 245 | url= | quote= | pubmedID= | doipubmedCID=2068241 | DOI= 10.1136/bmj.1.4700.245-a | pmcdate= 2068241 1951 | accessdate=}}</ref> and suggested more conservative ways of treating repeated respiratory infections.<ref>{{cite journal REFjournal |last=Gairdnerauthor | first=Gairdner D . | coauthors= | title= Tonsillectomy | journal= British Medical Journal|year= 1951 | volume= 1 | issue= 4706 | pages= 588 | url= | quote= | pubmedID= | doipubmedCID=2068602 | DOI=10.1136/bmj.1.4706.588-b | pmcdate= 2068602 1951 | accessdate=}}</ref>

Gairdner's research interests included Schōnlein-Henoch purpura,<ref>{{cite journal REFjournal |last=Gairdnerauthor | first= Gairdner D . | coauthors= | title= The Schönlein-Henoch syndrome (anaphylactoid purpura) | journal= The Quarterly Journal of Medicine|year= 1948 | volume= 17 | issue= 66 | pages= 95–122 95-122 | url= | pmidquote= | pubmedID= 18870385 | pubmedCID= | DOI= | date=1948 | accessdate=}}</ref> nephrotic syndrome, [[Circumcision|circumcision]], and the formation of red blood cells in infancy.<ref>{{cite journal REFjournal |last=Gairdnerauthor | first= Gairdner D. |display-authorscoauthors=etalet al. | title= Blood formation in infancy. Part I. The normal bone marrow | journal= Archives of Disease in Childhood|year= 1952 | volume= 27 | issue= 132 | pages= 128–32 128-132 | url= | quote= | pubmedID=14924678 | doipubmedCID=1988747 | DOI= 10.1136/adc.27.132.128 | pmiddate= 14924678 1952 | pmcaccessdate= 1988747 }}</ref> He made contributions to the field of neonatology with studies on improving the management of respiratory problems of the newborn. PubMed lists sixty-one published papers by Dr Gairdner.

The James Spence Medal of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health was awarded to Gairdner in 1976.<ref name="obit" /><ref name="spence" /> He received the Dawson Williams Prize<ref>{{cite journal REFjournal | last= | first= | coauthors= | title= Dawson Williams Memorial Prize | journal= The Lancet|year= 1934 | volume= 223 | issue= 5774 | pages= 907 | url= | quote= | doipubmedID= | pubmedCID= | DOI= 10.1016/S0140-6736(00)93009-5 | date=1934 | accessdate=}}</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>{{cite journal REFjournal |authorlast= Ramos de Almeida | first=JM | coauthors= | title= A tribute to Douglas Gairdner | journal= Archives of Disease in Childhood|year= 1980 | volume= 55 | issue= 6 | pages= 494 | url= | quote= | doipubmedID= | pubmedCID=1626943 | DOI= 10.1136/adc.55.6.494 | pmcdate= 1626943 1980 | accessdate=}}</ref>

==References=={{REF}}*[http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=IF503311633&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 Douglas Gairdner] (obituary), ''The Times'', London, 13 May 1992, page 15{{reflist}}