Howard Williams was a great paediatrician. Inspired by the vision that the health of children was the basis for the health of the nation – and indeed for its whole social well-being – he determined as a young man to devote his career to the advancement of paediatrics. He was one of the first to see that it was necessary to establish paediatrics as an independent medical discipline, and that its future leaders should be trained in both high quality research and exemplary clinical care – leaders who would share his vision and in turn share it with future generations of medical students and paediatricians. The story of his career is the story of how superbly he succeeded in achieving these aims.

Howard grew up in a religious family, his father being an Anglican missionary and his mother a fervent member of the Baptist community. Perhaps he absorbed from them the great principle of striving throughout one’s life to pursue one’s ideals. Other formative influences were a particular Sunday school teacher, who encouraged his love of literature, and a year spent in bed following at attack of scarlet fever, during which he learned to love classical music – and perhaps the importance of a healthy childhood!

He won a scholarship to Scotch College, where he opened the batting at cricket and learned tennis. In later years he regularly hosted weekend tennis at his home and in his later years enjoyed golf.

He graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1935, and after an uneventful internship at the Melbourne Hospital progressed to the Children’s Hospital and remained there for the rest of his career, apart from service with the RAAF in New Guinea. After the war he was invited to fill the newly created post of Director of Clinical Research at the (later Royal) Children’s Hospital. To better equip himself for this he spent a very rewarding period as a Nuffield Fellow at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, under the direction of (Sir) James Spence – a charismatic figure in the then nascent British paediatric world, whom Howard often quoted with affection and respect for the rest of his life. Like his mentor, he always took great account of the inescapably important familial and social factors in paediatric research and practice, and his time was always divided between directing the activities of the Clinical Research Unit and conducting his own general medical unit.

The first of his many papers was published in 1939. In it he demonstrated the beneficial effect of pre-operative intravenous saline in the treatment of congenital pyloric stenosis. As with so much of his research in the years to come the paper was very much concerned with the practical clinical application of research. The main focus of his research activity was respiratory medicine, in the earlier years dealing mainly with tuberculosis, bronchiectasis and cystic fibrosis, but the lasting contribution of Howard and his team was their major study or the epidemiology of childhood asthma. This work gave rise to the emergence of respiratory paediatrics as a recognised sub-specialty, and the textbook on the subject by Howard and his colleagues attracted wide acclaim (Williams Howard E and Phelan Peter D Respiratory illness in children Blackwell 1975, 2nd ed 1982). The Unit was also responsible for significant advances in gastroenterology, clinical genetics, and community paediatrics. But sight was never lost of the importance of the clinical contact between doctor and patient (and of course parent or carer). Howard himself was a truly magnificent clinical teacher, and generations of medical students and RMO’s are in his debt for teaching them the skills involved in dealing with anxious parents and in sensitively but thoroughly examining a sick child.

Striking testimony to Howard’s success in spreading his vision for paediatrics is provided by the number of his associates who themselves came to occupy chairs of paediatrics: Bill Macdonald (Perth), Charlotte Anderson (Birmingham), David Danks (Melbourne; also Murdoch Research Institute), Lou Landau (Perth), Allan Carmichael (Hobart) and Craig Mellis (Sydney). He also played and important part in the establishment of the Department of Child Health in the University of Papua New Guinea.

Howard Williams was a founding member and later President of the Australian Paediatric Association 1976-77 and was also President of the Thoracic Society of Australia 1974-77. His outstanding contribution to paediatrics and child health was recognised by his being made an Officer of the Order of Australia. Each year at the RACP Annual Scientific Meeting, the Paediatrics and Child Health Division acknowledges a person who has made a similar outstanding contribution to the field in Australia or New Zealand, by inviting them to be the Howard Williams Orator and the recipient of the Howard Williams Medal.

He had a long and happy marriage with his radiologist wife Frieda (née Plarre); he was a loving father to his children Anne, Jo and Ian, and an affectionate grandfather to their children.