Dear Bal
Jeanette and I were so very sad to hear that Barry died earlier this week and very grateful to you for keeping us informed. We are just so glad that the PAEP's 50th anniversary shindig last year gave us the opportunity to meet up with him once more for what has turned out to be the last time. I'm not sure what the golfing equivalent of "a good innings" is, but Barry certainly embraced it.
I first came across Barry in 1966 when he gave a short but highly stimulating series of undergraduate lectures in Ophthalmology. I had just finished an intercalated honours degree in Physiology with Prof David Whitteridge that included quite a bit of visual neuroscience and, once introduced to the clinical side of Ophthalmology by Barry, I was hooked! Barry arranged for me to do my final year elective in the old Eye Department in the ERI, and then organised research funding for me from the Ross Foundation to keep me employed on each end of my SHO year in the new PAEP. In every way he was my mentor, and I can't imagine how my very fortunate professional life would have turned out had Barry not been such a major part of it. I do hope that, once this wretched virus has been overcome, there will be an opportunity to celebrate his immense contribution to our specialty. Please pass on our condolences to Ann and, of course, to all his former colleagues in Edinburgh for whom this is the veritable end of an era.
Sincerely
David
Professor Emeritus David McLeod, University of Manchester Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist, Manchester Royal Eye Hospital