James Steel Scott: For some time Irish obstetrics and midwifery enjoyed, and to some extent still enjoys, a worldwide reputation for clinical excellence.
Pregnant women here, and in far away places, have benefited from medical and nursing skills acquired and developed in this country.
This, in part, may be due to an almost vocational commitment to the art and craft of care of the expectant mother particularly during delivery.
A phone call to an obstetrician's home, answered by his small son, inquiring if this was indeed the father's residence was met with the response "no, he lives in the Coombe Maternity Hospital but sometimes sleeps here".
Another practitioner spent so much of his time at his labour ward that it became known as his "kitchen"! It is likely that it was this degree of involvement that allowed for a breadth of experience that resulted in clinical insights and skills that could not have been acquired otherwise.
Many thousands of nurses and doctors who came to this country retained a life-long affection for the place and its people.
Many went on to careers of outstanding distinction within and beyond their own countries. One of these was James Steel Scott who died on September 17th in England. He was one of the leading academic and clinical obstetricians of the past three decades, a world figure in his own field. Graduating from the University of Glasgow, part of his early training was spent in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin.
He retained a pride in that experience and an affection for this country and its people that stayed with him till the end.
Prof James Scott was head of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology and dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Leeds.
He held countless positions of academic and professional distinction both at national and international level particularly in the area of the science of pregnancy and its related diseases.
He was external examiner to the colleges of the National University of Ireland and enriched his social and academic contacts with Irish colleagues during those visits.
He expressed an admiration for the role of the family in the social culture of those that hosted him.
He deeply admired the clinical skills of his Irish colleagues and they in turn admired his breadth of knowledge and vision, inviting him to give the prestigious annual memorial lectures to those hospitals and institutions where he began his career.
Despite the glint of humour which was never far from his eye he was a man of integrity and the dictates of his conscience were never compromised, least of all for reasons of personal or professional advancement.
He believed and proved that it was possible to practice clinically at the highest level while, at the same time, conducting original and outstanding scientific research - an achievement of few and considered impossible by many. He published prolifically and the world's leading clinical and research journals sought his expertise in editorials and review articles.
He was generous to his junior colleagues in the team that he led at Leeds, allowing them to enjoy the publishing limelight and only adding his own name to papers that he had been directly involved in.
He was notorious for meticulous drafting of work for publication and God help the redundant word.
He pioneered in Leeds the research into the immunological aspects of pregnancy, work that was later carried forward by members of his team in the World Health Organisation and academic units in many countries.
He was a natural leader, perhaps due to a Scots Presbyterian work ethic that exhausted most of those about him. Even in retirement living with him was said to be akin to that of life with a hyperactive child. His enthusiasm and drive made working with him challenging, demanding and finally rewarding but always, on reflection, fun.
He is survived by sons Alistair and Malcolm and his wife Olive, who collaborated with him when her interests in paediatric cardiology overlapped with his. Her kindness to young doctors who went to Leeds to train, many from Ireland, will be always fondly remembered.
Everyone will have a favourite story to tell on hearing of his passing. Most will elicit at least a smile and then the cold touch of the awareness of loss.
James Steel Scott: born April 18th, 1924; died September 17th, 2006