Patrick David Wall FRS, DM, FRCP.Honorary Member AAGBI, 1925–2001

Pat Wall's death at the age of 76 from prostate cancer leaves the world richer in knowledge, particularly about the basic processes of pain transmission and modulation, and poorer without his unique insights into science and life. Patrick David Wall was the son of the Director of Education for Middlesex and was educated at St Paul's and Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in medicine in 1958. Soon after, he moved to the United States of America where he worked briefly at Yale, Chicago and Harvard before settling for a longer period at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; working with some of the leaders in cognitive and neurosciences. Whilst there, he developed the gate theory of pain with the Canadian psychologist Ron Melzack. Wall always claimed that their original description in Brain was read by about three people and it was the revised version, published in Science in 1965, that attracted the attention of many within medicine and other healing arts. The gate theory proposed that pain stimuli were capable of modulation from above and below. Wall collaborated with an American neurosurgeon, Bill Sweet, to demonstrate that electrical stimulation worked as a treatment for pain and thus showed that the theory had practical, and far-reaching significance. In 1967, he returned to Great Britain as Professor of Anatomy and director of the cerebral functions group at University College London (UCL). Having established the importance of the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system in pain, Wall went on to inspire decades of researchers and to contribute his unique insights into life in general and pain in particular. Throughout his working career he maintained strong links with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in both laboratories he developed and sustained links with a group of scientists who were to become the leaders of research efforts in pain. Immediately after his retirement from UCL in 1992, he was offered a home within the Royal College of Anaesthetists – something he appreciated greatly. Pat Wall was a student at the Middlesex Hospital when he took part in the foundation of the British Medical Students Association. He was at the forefront of the genesis of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and the Brain Research Association (later the British Neuroscience Association) and he edited the journal Pain for many years. He wrote wonderfully readable books for a general audience (The Puzzle of Pain and Pain: The Science of Suffering) and co-edited one of the standard works on his chosen topic the Textbook of Pain. No institution or belief was too sacred to be allowed to rest unmolested. Pat believed that if an idea was good enough, it would survive attack. Sometimes he forgot to tell the recipients about this belief, with the result that relations could become strained; if not downright hostile. Nonetheless, his robust approach often led to better understanding and greater respect on both sides. No one could be indifferent to Pat Wall. He had a natural distrust of organisations and a natural affinity with the free spirits of life. He had an extensive knowledge of music, culture and politics and was a superb raconteur. The sight of him with a beer in front of him and the trademark roll-up cigarette to hand would cause mass migrations in bars and at meetings. Often prefacing his remarks with ‘isn’t it curious that …' he would regale his audience with scurrilous anecdote, incisive comment or cutting edge science – life with Pat was never dull. Equally at home with the good and the great he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1989 and awarded its Queen's Medal in 2000. His anarchic views had led to delays in his election and he saw the funny side when he became chair of their nominations committee. His connections with anaesthesia were strong. In the early 1990s, Pat enjoyed walking down Gower Street to the Association's headquarters where beer and ashtrays were still available and he was hugely pleased by the award of Honorary Membership by the Association. He had honours and Fellowships heaped upon him worldwide and the last IASP World Congress on Pain was held in his honour. He was awarded Honorary membership of the Pain Society twice and claimed that this wasn't an oversight, but a reflection of the esteem in which he was held – or so he said. Pat Wall continued to work, lecture, travel and have fun until the end. He leaves his third wife Mary who he married in 1999.

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