Monty Seymour Losowsky

Abstract

Monty Seymour Losowsky was born in the East End of London, the son of immigrant parents, who today would probably be classed as illegal immigrants, fleeing from antisemitic persecution in eastern Europe. His father went on to fight for the British in the first world war and was decorated. Monty was brought up in the straitened circumstances of the 1930s. His mother had had no formal education and had to work hard to support the family financially after the sudden death of her husband. His early education was fragmented by his experience as an evacuee—he attended 14 different secondary schools during the six years of the second world war—but nonetheless he excelled academically: he gained admission to the Coopers’ Company School and was selected by the school as an outstanding student for formal “indentureship” as a cooper, after which he was granted the freedom of the City of London. He was awarded a place at the University of Leeds School of Medicine, and qualified with honours. He worked as house officer at Leeds General Infirmary to Professor Sir Ronald Tunbridge, then moved to be medical registrar at St Margaret’s Hospital, Epping, from 1957 to 1959, achieving his membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 1958. By this stage he had developed an interest in gastroenterology and liver disease, which was a relatively new specialty in those days. With great foresight he then went to work as an “assistant externe” at a specialist liver unit at the Hopital St Antoine, Paris, in 1960 with Jacques Caroli. He was awarded his MD by the University of Leeds in 1961 for of his clinical …