Professor Tom E. Oppe

Provided by Dr Rodney Rivers

Professor Tom Oppe, who died on June 25th aged  82,  was a pioneer in the development of health services for children and headed up the department of paediatrics at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School from 1960 until his retirement in  1990.

After the second world war, the majority of babies were being bottle fed on cow’s milk based formulae. Many were being admitted to hospital with high sodium and low calcium levels, the babies often presenting with convulsions. Oppe initiated research and chaired the Government Working Party that produced a series of reports including, in 1974, Present Day Practice in Infant Feeding in which it was recommended that babies be breast fed for the first 4-6 months – quite a bombshell at the time - and that formula be substantially modified, Oppe promoted child care in the community – the forerunner of community paediatrics - and supported one of the first home care doctor led teams in the country with doctors based at St Mary’s visiting children in their homes. He was particularly interested in behavioural phenotypes and worked extensively on Williams syndrome.

Professor Oppe was an excellent administrator and was adviser to several organisations including the NSPCC; he held senior positions at the Royal College of Physicians and in the  British Paediatric Association, the forerunner of the RCPCH. He was adviser to government on all aspects of nutrition and child health and was awarded a CBE in 1984 for his services to paediatrics. He was proud of his family and grandchildren and devised a number of fiendish intellectual games in his retirement.