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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 |init=RJ |title=Douglas Gairdner, editor of the ''Archives'' 1964–79 |journal=Archives of Disease in Childhood |volume=54 |issue=11 |pages=817-819 |url= |quote= |pubmedID=393179 |pubmedCID=1545590 |DOI=10.1136/adc.54.11.813 |date=1979 |accessdate=}}</ref> Gairdner's landmark 1949 article, ''The Fate of the Foreskin: A Study of Circumcision'',<ref name="fate1949">{{GairdnerDM 1949}}</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(1985), the article "began to affect the practice of circumcision by the British".<ref>{{REFjournal
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{{WikipediaQuote | URL=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Gairdner|title=Douglas Gairdner}}
'''Douglas Montagu Temple Gairdner''', {{MA}}, {{MD}}, {{FRCP }} ({{LifeData|1910-11-19|1992-05-10}}) was a Scottish consultant 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>{{REFjournal
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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">{{REFjournal
|title=Obituary, D M T Gairdner
|journal=British Medical Journal
|volume=304
|issue=6839
|pagespage=1438–14391438 |url= |quotehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1882198/?page=1
|pubmedID=1882198
|pubmedCID=
|DOI=10.1136/bmj.304.6839.1438
|date=1992
|accessdate=2022-10-23
}}</ref><ref name="spence">{{REFjournal
|last=
|issue=2
|pages=85–86
|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1546185/pdf/archdisch00820-0007.pdf
|quote=
|pubmedID=
|DOI=10.1136/adc.52.2.85
|date=1977
|accessdate=2023-03-23
}}</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
|init=DDMT
|author-link=Douglas Gairdner
|title=History opened my eyes
|issue=6322
|pages=1105–6
|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1497911/pdf/bmjcred00601-0041.pdf
|quote=
|pubmedID=20741753
|DOI=10.1136/bmj.284.6322.1105
|date=1982
|accessdate=2023-03-23
}}</ref> Gairdner's father died in 1928, when Gairdner was 17 years of age.
Gairdner attended [https://www.kelvinside.org/ Kelvinside Academy, Glasgow]; [https://www.dragonschool.org/ Dragon School, Oxford]; and [https://www.greshams.com/ Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk].<ref name="obit"/> He went to school with W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten and sang madrigals with classmate Peter Pears.<ref name="obit"/>
He read chemistry at the {{UNI|University of Oxford |Oxon}} 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 [https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/| 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
|init=DDMT
|author-link=Douglas Gairdner
|title=Great St. Ormond Street 50 years ago
==Professional career==
Gairdner worked as a fellow in paediatrics at [https://www.nychealthandhospitals.org/locations/bellevue/ Bellevue Hospital ] in 1939.<ref name="obit"/> During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps for five years, retiring with the rank of Major.<ref name="obit"/><ref name="spence"/>
He became first assistant in the paediatric department at Newcastle upon Tyne where he began to work under Professor Sir [[James Calvert Spence ]] in 1945.<ref name="spence"/> In 1948, he became a consultant paediatrician at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and associate lecturer in paediatrics at the {{UNI|University of Cambridge|UCam}}, where he remained until his retirement in 1975.<ref name="spence"/>
|last=Wallerstein
|init=E
|date=1985
|accessdate=
}}</ref> Gairdner was pleased with the success of the article.<ref name="obit" /> The National Health Service from its inception in 1948 did not perform non-therapeutic circumcision.<ref name="nhschild">{{REFweb |url=https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/circumcision-in-boys/ |archived= |title=Circumcision in boys |trans-title= |language= |last= |first= |author-link= |publisher=National Health Service |website= |date=2018-11-20 |accessdate=2021-09-05 |format= |quote=}}</ref> The article by Gairdner provided the needed scientific support for that position. The article also has been credited with initiating the decline of the practice of circumcision in [[New Zealand]]. Gairdner also opposed unnecessary tonsillectomy, drawing attention to the risks of the operation at the time (1951)<ref>{{REFjournal
|last=Gairdner
|init=DDMT
|author-link=Douglas Gairdner
|title=Tonsillectomy
|issue=4700
|pages=245
|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2068241/pdf/brmedj03531-0043b.pdf
|quote=
|pubmedID=
|DOI=10.1136/bmj.1.4700.245-a
|date=1951
|accessdate=202-03-23
}}</ref> and suggested more conservative ways of treating repeated respiratory infections.<ref>{{REFjournal
|last=Gairdner
|init=DDMT
|author-link=Douglas Gairdner
|title=Tonsillectomy
|issue=4706
|pages=588
|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2068241/pdf/brmedj03531-0043b.pdf
|quote=
|pubmedID=
|DOI=10.1136/bmj.1.4706.588-b
|date=1951
|accessdate=2023-03-23
}}</ref>
Gairdner's research interests included Schōnlein-Henoch purpura,<ref>{{REFjournal
|last=Gairdner
|init=DDMT
|author-link=Douglas Gairdner
|title=The Schönlein-Henoch syndrome (anaphylactoid purpura)
}}</ref> nephrotic syndrome, [[Circumcision|circumcision]], and the formation of red blood cells in infancy.<ref>{{REFjournal
|last=Gairdner
|init=DDMT
|author-link=Douglas Gairdner
|etal=yes
|accessdate=
}}</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.
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
|init=RJ
|title=Douglas Gairdner, editor of the ''Archives'' 1964–79
|journal=Archives of Disease in Childhood
|volume=54
|issue=11
|pages=817-819
|url=
|quote=
|pubmedID=393179
|pubmedCID=1545590
|DOI=10.1136/adc.54.11.813
|date=1979
|accessdate=
}}</ref>
==Honours==
{{SEEALSO}}
* [[History of circumcision]]
* [[United Kingdom]]
{{LINKSABBR}}* [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
{{REF}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gairdner, DouglasMontagu Temple}}
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[[Category:UK]]
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