b.23 December 1923 d.11 October 1983

MB BChir Cantab(1947) MRCP(1950) MD(1954) FRCP(1970) FRCPath(1973)

Tony Waterson died at the age of 59, having recently retired as professor of virology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London. Academically his record was quite outstanding. He was an open entrance scholar at Epsom College and gained an open scholarship in classics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he obtained a double first in Natural Sciences. He carried out his clinical studies at the London Hospital Medical College, qualifying in 1947. 

After house appointments at the London, Waterson served as medical officer in the RAF in Germany. He then returned to Cambridge, first as a house physician at Addenbrooke’s Hospital to Sir Lionel Whitby and Lawrence Martin, followed by an appointment as assistant pathologist in the clinical laboratories. In 1952, Waterson transferred to the University, first as Elmore research student in the department of medicine and then as university demonstrator and later lecturer in the department of pathology, where he stayed until his appointment to St Thomas’s Hospital in 1964. During this period, Waterson was able to combine and achieve distinction in his College and departmental activities. Thus, after being elected to a fellowship of Emmanuel College in 1954, he successfully became director of studies in medicine and assistant tutor and college lecturer in pathology. He was a member of the governing body of Emmanuel College and also served on the College council and tutorial committee. In the department of pathology, Waterson was involved in important discoveries, most of which were related to the fine structure of viruses in which the then newly recognized technique of negative contrast staining was used. His book, Introduction to Animal Virology, was designed specifically for students studying pathology for part II of the Natural Sciences Tripos in Cambridge; it was widely popular, not only in Cambridge but wherever basic virology was being taught. 

However, unlike most academic virologists during this time, he realized the potential of the clinical applications of virology, and actively encouraged research into the clinical aspects of virus diseases. When he moved to St Thomas’s Hospital in 1964, after a year’s sabbatical in the Max Planck Institute for Virus Research, Tübingen, he was amongst the foremost to develop clinical services and research into clinical virology. After three years Waterson moved to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, where he also developed clinical services and continued to supervise research both in basic and clinical virology. His interests and activities covered a wide field and included viral hepatitis, slow virus infections, as well as various aspects of the fine structure, taxonomy and evolution of viruses. He threw himself with enthusiasm into a study of viral infection and cardiomyopathy. At Hammersmith, Tony Waterson was respected and admired for his distinctive approach to clinical virology. His clear, forthright, but unassuming contributions to staff rounds were always received with attention and remembered for their value. 

Like many people of high intellectual achievement he was reserved, and despite the breadth of scholarship, truly modest. He never thrust his opinions and views upon others, and was an admirable and imaginative collaborator in research. Those who worked with him appreciated his style, knowledge and competence as well as his capacity for tolerance and understanding. 

One of his major achievements was his bringing together of clinical virologists at first in small, but later in much larger groups for meetings at a time when there was no forum available. The large and flourishing clinical virology group, now incorporated into the Society for General Microbiology, provides a tribute to Waterson’s foresight and enthusiasm. Shortly after his retirement, a ‘Festschrift’ was arranged on his behalf at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School. Despite this coinciding with both a complete rail and London Transport strike, it was a measure of the high esteem in which Tony Waterson was held that a large number of his friends and former colleagues still managed to come, not only from the UK but also from abroad. 

Tony was a scholar in every sense of the word; he had a considerable knowledge of history, both ancient and modern, and the book he wrote with Lise Wilkinson on the History of Virology is a classic. Unknown, even to many of his closer friends, Waterson was a biblical scholar of some repute and had read the Bible in the original Greek. Those who came to know him well found him kind and considerate, and his behaviour that of a true gentleman; he was also a man of deep religious conviction. He was devoted to and obtained great pleasure from his family; he was survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.

JF Goodwin

[Brit.med.J., 1983, 287, 1386 & 2559; Lancet, 1983, 2, 1040; Times, 4 Nov 1983]

As Prime Minister Boris Johnson lay dangerously ill with Covid-19 in St Thomas’ Hospital in London, he was unaware that decades earlier, in that very same hospital, a Yorkshireman had helped facilitate the discovery of the virus type that caused the devastating world-wide pandemic.

It was in Professor Tony Waterson’s Microbiology Department at St Thomas’ that the coronavirus was first identified in 1964 by [Dr. June Dalziel Almeida (born 1930)], a brilliant, Scottish-born scientist he had headhunted from the Ontario Cancer Institute in Canada.

Hornsea-born [Prof. Anthony Peter "Tony" Waterson (born 1923)] and [Dr. David Arthur John Tyrrell (born 1925)], then head of the Common Cold Research Unit, then took on the task of naming the virus with help from a dictionary. This initial discovery was the crucial first building block in helping modern day scientists battle this latest deadly strain.

The story began when the Common Cold Research Unit in Salisbury identified an unusual virus strain in nostril swabs taken from schoolboys. They found that it caused cold-like symptoms but had properties that were quite distinct from the familiar cold viruses and they were keen to find out more. 

Dr David Tyrrell later wrote: “I decided to seek help from [Prof. Anthony Peter "Tony" Waterson (born 1923)], the new professor of virology at St Thomas’ Hospital. “He had just recruited an electron microscopist, [Dr. June Dalziel Almeida (born 1930)], who was seemingly extending the range of the electron microscope to new limits. She claimed that she would be able to find virus particles with her new, improved techniques.

“We were not too hopeful but felt it was worth a try. The results exceeded all our hopes and her pictures revealed their structure beautifully. June was confident that these three viruses were something quite new.”

The daughter of a Scottish bus driver who grew up in a Glasgow tenement and left school at 16 was right. Starting as a lab technician, she went on to study virology and became a leading light in virus imaging, identification, and diagnosis. What she saw that day 56 years ago was the first glimpse of a human coronavirus and she recognised that it was related to viruses in animals as she had seen similar particles while investigating mouse hepatitis and infectious bronchitis in chickens.

This new virus group needed a name and the circumstances of its coinage were recounted by [Dr. David Arthur John Tyrrell (born 1925)]: “We sat down in Waterson’s office to consider the implications of these results. We were quite certain that we had identified a previously unrecognized group of viruses. So what should we call them? “Influenza-like seemed a bit feeble, somewhat vague, and probably misleading. “We looked more closely at the appearance of the new viruses and noticed that they had a kind of halo surrounding them. Recourse to a dictionary produced the Latin equivalent, corona, and so the name coronavirus was born.”

It was in a short article in the journal Nature in November 1968 that [Dr. June Dalziel Almeida (born 1930)], [Dr. David Arthur John Tyrrell (born 1925)] and six other virologists first used the name “coronavirus” in print.

Prof. Waterson’s son Nicholas says that it was only after the start of the pandemic last year that the family became aware of their father’s involvement with the work, after looking through his papers and books. “We knew, of course, that he did something clever with viruses and we were even sometimes allowed to peer down the electron microscope on visits to his lab but we really had no idea what he got up to in any detail,” says Nicholas. “He died when I was only 18 and learning about this has made me feel closer to him again after so many years.”

Just over fifty years ago, in 1970, Prof. Tony Waterson wrote the following somewhat prescient words: “If a pathogenic micro-organism should break loose, which can spread not only from animals to man but also readily from man to man, a major and global disaster would happen.”

Dying prematurely in 1983, at the age of 59, he did not live to see the viruses he had named finally cause the global pandemic he had feared. Dr June Almeida passed away in 2007 and Dr David Tyrrell in 2005 but their work also lives on.

*A LIFE SCIENTIFIC: Professor Tony Waterson was born at the Old Hall in Hornsea on the East Yorkshire coast in 1923. His parents had just moved north from Kent after buying Hornsea College, a girl’s boarding school based in a rambling Jacobean manor house. Gladys, his mother, became the headmistress and it seems that she was a woman with enormous drive as she was still only in her twenties when she took on the role.

She set the bar very high not only for her pupils but also her own children., though Trevor’s son Edward Waterson who lives in York, says: “Tony and his older brother, Trevor, were very close and enjoyed a carefree seaside childhood in what was then a quiet little seaside town.”

The young Tony was enrolled at Hornsea College and then sent off to board at the age of only seven at Orleton Preparatory School up the coast in Scarborough. Though he missed his family and objected to cliff-top football in the bracing Yorkshire winds, he threw himself into his schoolwork and excelled academically.

When it came to his secondary schooling, Tony was sent south, winning a scholarship to Epsom College in Surrey and later won a classics scholarship to Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1941. Despite his lifelong love of Latin and Greek, he chose to follow a more practical scientific path, graduating with a double first in Natural Sciences.

He had been due to be called up for military service in 1943 but according to College archivist Amanda Goode, Emmanuel fought successfully to keep him, arguing that he was one of the “very best” students. It was also at Cambridge that Tony discovered the Christian faith that would guide him through the rest of his life. After completing his medical studies at the London Hospital, he did National Service as an RAF Medical Officer in Germany, looking after servicemen and their families during the Berlin airlift.

His daughter Sarah says that there was always a caring side to him. She recently found a letter he wrote to his mother asking her to send a tin of cocoa from Yorkshire as there was none to be had in Germany and his German teacher wanted some for his elderly mother.

Following National Service, his scientific career took off fast. He returned to Cambridge to lecture and research in pathology, specialising in viruses, and after a sabbatical year back in Germany, he took up the post of Professor of Microbiology at St Thomas’s Hospital in London in 1964 at the age of 40. Later he would become the first Professor of Virology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital.

Professor A P Waterson, formerly professor of virology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, died at home on 17 October. He was 59.

Anthony Peter Waterson had an outstanding academic record: an open entrance to Epsom College was followed by an open scholarship in classics to Emmanuel College,Cambridge, where he obtained a double first in natural sciences. He graduated MB, BChir in 1947, carrying out his clinical studies at the London Hospital Medical College, where he was an open entrance scholar. After house officer appointments there and at Addenbrooke's and national service with the Royal Air Force he became successively Elmore research student in the department of medicine at Cambridge and in 1954 university demonstrator and then lecturer in the department of pathology, eventually with responsibility for the virus research laboratory. During this time he was also active in college affairs at Emmanuel, being a fellow, director of studies in medicine, and supervisor of pathology.

It was during his early days in the department of pathology that Tony Waterson's interest in virology was kindled, and within a short time he had made many important contributions in relation to the structure of viruses. In contrast with many academic virologists who at that time rarely ventured into the field of clinical virology, he predicted that this would soon be a rapidly developing specialty. Perhaps more than any other person he was responsible for bringing virology out of the research laboratory and into everyday use in clinical practice. When appointed to the chair of medical microbiology at St Thomas's Hospital in 1964 and when four years later he moved to the chair in virology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School he encouraged the development of clinical services and research in clinical virology. Although not primarily an investigator, he made a remarkable contribution as a catalyst, coordinator of stimulating meetings, and editor. Thus within only a six year period he edited three editions of Recent Advances in Clinical Virology. His many review articles were widely read as they were not simply collections of facts pulled together from other sources but were works exhibiting considerable critical insight into aspects of disease that had sometimes escaped the notice of those who were more actively engaged in research. He brought clinical virologists together, at first in small, but later in much larger groups, for meetings at a time when there was no forum available. The large and flourishing clinical virology group now incorporated into the Society for General Microbiology provides a tribute to his foresight and enthusiasm.

Shortly after Professor Waterson's retirement a "Festschrift" was arranged on his behalf at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School. It was a tribute to the high esteem in which he was held that, despite this coinciding with a complete strike of both the railways and London Transport, a large number of his friends and former colleagues still managed to come - not only from the United Kingdom but also from abroad.

Professor Waterson was a scholar in every sense of the word; he had a considerable knowledge of history, both ancient and modern, and the book he wrote with Lise Wilkinson, An Introduction to the History of Virology (1978), is a classic. Unknown even to many of his closer friends, he was a biblical scholar of some repute and had read the Bible in the original Greek. As an individual he was reserved and, despite the breadth ofhis scholarship, truly modest. Those who came to know him well found him truly kind and in his behaviour a thorough gentleman; he was also a man of deep religious convictions. He was devoted to and obtained great pleasure from his family; he is survived by his wife Ellen, two daughters, and a son.-JEB.

VIROLOGY / CORONAVIRUSES

A NEW group of viruses with the name of coronaviruses has been recognized by an informal group of virologists who have sent their conclusions to Nature. (They are [Dr. June Dalziel Almeida (born 1930)]; D. M. Berry; C. H. Cunningham; D. Hamre; M. S. Hofstad; L. Mallucci; K. McIntosh; [Dr. David Arthur John Tyrrell (born 1925)].)

They point out that with negative staining, avian infectious bronchitis virus has a characteristic electron microscopic appearance resembling, but distinct from, that of myxoviruses. Particles are more or less rounded in profile; although there is a certain amount of polymorphism, there is also a characteristic "fringe" of projections 200 A long, which are rounded or petal shaped, rather than sharp or pointed, as in the myxoviruses. This appearance, recalling the solar corona, is shard by mouse hepatitis virus and several viruses recently recovered from man, namely strain B814, 229E and several others. These viruses also share a number of other properties as indicated in the table. (Anyone interested in the data on which the table is based may obtain a short bibliography on application to Dr D. A. J. Tyrrell at the Common Cold Research Unit, Salisbury, Wiltshire.)

[...]

Some other relevant properties should bc mentioned. There is an antigenic relationship between the human and murine strains, but none has been detected between avian strains and the others. A haemagglutinin has been detected by certain workers using avian infectious bronchitis virus and also antigens separable from the virus particle, but these have so far not been recorded for the human or murine strains.

In the opinion of the eight virologists these viruses are members of a previously unrecognized group which they suggest should be called the coronaviruses, to recall the characteristic appearance by which these viruses are identified in the electron microscope.

These suggestions have been received by members of the Myxovirus Study Group (chairman, [Prof. Anthony Peter "Tony" Waterson (born 1923)]) under the International Committee for the Nomenclature of Viruses (ICNV). The suggestions were found acceptable and are now to be considered by the Vertebrate Virus Committee of the ICNV.