David Graham Melville-Thomas, consultant and Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in South Wales, died on 1 November.
Two years as Medical Officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps with Forces Families began his interest in personal, psychological and social aspects of illness in childhood. This led to posts in paediatrics and neurosurgery at the Morriston Hospital, Swansea, where he met his wife, Dr Betsan Phillips, a niece of Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
Graham’s thinking was greatly shaped by the Swiss Christian physician, Paul Tournier, on treating patients as whole persons. He inaugurated services in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry based at Preswylfa Child Guidance Clinic and Whitchurch Hospital in Cardiff, working closely with Professor Kenneth Rawnsley, to develop postgraduate training in child and adolescent psychiatry. With his good friend Peter Gray, Professor of Paediatrics, he launched a Centre, from voluntary sources, to provide multi-disciplinary therapy for children with disabilities, and a Child Development Unit.
