Obituary: Professor Henry Walton, psychiatrist and art connoisseur

Published on 19/07/2012 00:00

BORN: 15 February, 1924, in South Africa. Died: 13 July, 2012, in Edinburgh, aged 88

n Professor Henry Walton, psychiatrist and art connoisseur.
Born: 15 February, 1924, in South Africa. Died: 13 July, 2012, in Edinburgh, aged 88.

hENRY Walton was born in a rural district of South Africa to 
an English-speaking father and an artistic, Afrikaans mother. He had a twin who did not survive, and was followed in the family by a sister.

After schooling and university study he came to Britain and eventually settled in Edinburgh, where the greater part of his life was spent.

There, his activities centred on art connoisseurship. His passion for collecting began in his student days and continued throughout his life. Sustained by no more than an academic salary, allied to a critical eye, he built up a collection which became renowned, mostly of modern paintings but also including many artworks on paper, exquisite Oriental pieces and examples of African carving.

He bequeathed his collection to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, where it will be known as the Henry and Sula Walton Collection.

Perhaps not all his acquaintances were aware that the always elegantly dressed figure with benign expression and a slight formality of speech was also a distinguished psychiatrist.

He had qualified in medicine in 1945 from Cape Town University and subsequently trained as a neurologist, but was directed by his superiors to become a psychiatrist, a change of direction which he never regretted.

In 1958 he submitted to 
London University a dissertation which was read by Aubrey Lewis, and on the strength of it he was invited to join the Maudsley Hospital in London.

Here he became a senior registrar, and also met Sula Wolff whom he later married (and who became an internationally recognised child psychiatrist).

He returned to South Africa in 1957 for a spell as head of the department of psychiatry at Cape Town University, went on to a research fellowship at Columbia University, and eventually came to the Department of Psychiatry in Edinburgh, headed by Morris Carstairs, where in 1967 he was appointed professor.

One of Henry’s main contributions to clinical psychiatry was his work in an in-patient unit for alcoholism, which became a major training centre for students across many disciplines. He also wrote, in collaboration with Neil Kessel, Alcohol and Alcoholism, a semi-popular text which became best-seller in its field.

Closely associated was his work on in-patient psychotherapy – this being in those far-off days when there was 
little pressure on beds. His unit developed and disseminated a wide range of techniques, most with a psychoanalytic orientation, though his special pursuit was phenomenology, in which he maintained a keen interest throughout his life.

Although he never lost touch with psychiatry altogether, Henry resigned his chair in 1986 to take up a professorship in 
International Medical Education.

He was founder of the World Federation for Medical Education and organised a two-stage international conference, which produced a set of guidelines for medical schools which were widely adopted and which 
remain highly influential to this day.

For his work in this area, he received honorary degrees from universities in Sweden, Portugal and Argentina, and was 
honoured in various ways by 
academic bodies in no fewer than seven foreign countries.

He played a leading role in relation to the Association for Medical Education, as president and editor of its journal for more than a decade.

After retiring, Henry continued to build his collection, to advise and serve organisations concerned with art, such as Paintings in Hospitals, the Edinburgh Printmakers and the new Medical School of Edinburgh University, to guide many institutions at home and abroad on their acquisitions, and in procuring commissions for many artists both established and unknown.

Similarly, he remained active in counselling various medical schools on their educational programmes.

Henry was of a very sociable and affectionate disposition, attracting a large circle of friends for many of whom he came to occupy a guiding, almost charismatic role.

The gift for friendship never failed, and he remained highly active right up to the onset of his terminal illness (due to renal carcinoma) a few months before dying peacefully in his home.

His innumerable acquaintances will be much saddened and his many friends deeply grieved by the passing of this remarkable man.

NORMAN KREITMAN

‘An extraordinarily generous friend’

Patrick Elliot, senior curator at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA), said there was no discernible pattern to the Waltons’ collection: it was simply pieces that they really liked, whether it was a Joan Eardley bought for £15, Picasso or Rembrandt prints or some early Chinese pottery.

“It was compulsive, collecting – where some people collect books or CDs, he collected art,” he said.

Walton was a funny, off-the-wall and quite eccentric individual – sartorially he was fond of Topman, drainpipe jeans and Gucci winklepickers. He was also absolutely passionate, displaying a mix of intellectualism and emotional response to his collection of artworks.

“He knew everything about them,” explained Elliot. “Once he had bought a picture he would buy all the books about it so he knew everything there was to know about these things, and he would debate in great detail. He loved having people over to the house and to talk about the works.”

He also saw art as therapeutic, believing it could be something of a saviour, and was involved in Art in Healthcare, originally Paintings in Hospitals Scotland.

John Leighton, director-general of the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “Professor Henry Walton was an extraordinarily generous friend and supporter of the National Galleries.

“Together with his late wife Sula, he formed an outstanding collection not only of modern art, but also of Japanese prints, oriental ceramics, and African and Oceanic sculpture.

“We were privileged to show highlights from the Henry and Sula Walton Collection at the SNGMA in 2010 and the range of work on show not only reflected the connoisseurship of this amazing couple but also demonstrated their boundless passion and enthusiasm for the world of art.“

ALISON SHAW