Professor Patrick Mollison - Telegraph Mollison's career path was determined at the outbreak of war, shortly after he had qualified as a doctor, when he was sent by the Dean of St Thomas" Hospital Medical School to assist at one of four blood supply depots created in London to cope with the anticipated heavy casualties. During the Blitz he was often called upon to deliver donated blood to smaller hospitals in the capital, where doctors usually had no experience of giving transfusions and welcomed offers of help. But, as he recalled, "unless there was bright moonlight, driving to hospitals in the blackout was a challenge. Only partially masked sidelights were allowed and the roads were poorly lit. At the same time he became involved in medical research into blood transfusion techniques. One of the difficulties faced by transfusion units in the early years of the war was the short shelf-life of stored blood. It had been noticed that the rate of deterioration of red blood cells diminished when blood was stored with an acid diluent, but for a time no attempt was made to introduce such solutions in clinical practice for fear they might be harmful. Working with John Loutit and Maureen Young, Mollison carried out a systematic study of acidified chlorate-dextrose solutions (ACDs) which established not only that blood stored in ACD was harmless to the recipient, but that the survival of red blood cells after storage was much improved. Their paper on the subject, published in 1943 and later became the standard text, led to the use of an ACD solution as the usual preservative for blood. Later in the war Mollison served in the RAMC, reaching the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was one of the first doctors to enter the concentration camp of Belsen on its liberation in April 1945. The following year he published a paper in the BMJ, entitled Observations on cases of starvation at Belsen, in which he described the physical state of the surviving inmates, many of whom were suffering from tuberculosis or typhus and all of whom were severely anaemic after prolonged, systematic starvation. He found that the average weight of 18 of the healthier male inmates (those strong enough to stand up on scales) was under seven stone; the average weight of a similar group of female inmates was around five and a half stone. Despite their pitiful state, he reported that medical staff had difficulties persuading inmates to eat: "Because of their poor appetite many of them left the food untouched, and as there were insufficient nurses to feed them their state rapidly became worse." Yet he noticed that fear of being without food was so great that "even dying patients would put bread-and-butter and meat under their pillows." In such cases, he concluded "it does not suffice to provide a diet which merely satisfies theoretical nutritional requirements." A less harrowing memory of his time at Belsen was of showing Yehudi Menuhin and Benjamin Britten round the camp when they came to give a concert. Mollison ended his wartime service in Burma, where he was in charge of a field hospital in Mektila before being invalided home with a minor tropical disorder via the flying-boat service. In 1946 the Medical Research Council gave Mollison his own Blood Transfusion Research Unit at the Hammersmith Postgraduate Medical School, attached to the hospital's Obstetric department. There, among other things, he led research on the survival of red blood cells post-transfusion and on adverse reactions, such as that caused by rhesus incompatibility, sometimes seen in transfusion patients and also in newborns. The first exchange transfusion carried out on a British newborn suffering from blood poisoning caused by rhesus incompatibility was carried out on a laboratory bench in Mollison's unit. It was also during this period that he wrote his classic textbook. One of six children, Patrick Loudon Mollison was born in London on March 17 1914 into a distinguished academic and medical family. His grandfather, William Loudon Mollison, had risen from humble beginnings in Scotland to become a leading mathematician and Master of Clare College, Cambridge. His father, William Mayhew Mollison, was a distinguished ear, nose and throat surgeon at Guy's Hospital. Patrick was educated at Rugby School, which he hated, then read Natural Sciences (with papers on comparative anatomy and physiology) at Clare College, Cambridge, where he enjoyed tennis and squash. He then went to St Thomas" for clinical training. In 1960 the MRC Blood Transfusion Research Unit moved to St Mary's Hospital Medical School and was renamed the Experimental Haematology Unit. Mollison remained director of the unit until his retirement in 1979. Mollison chaired the MRC Blood Transfusion Research Committee from 1955 to 1978; was appointed Professor of Haematology in the University of London in 1962; and was chairman of the managing committee of the Blood Products Laboratory of the National Blood Transfusion service for many years. He enjoyed skiing and classical music, and often travelled to Bayreuth and Glyndebourne. He was elected FRS in 1968. Patrick Mollison married first, in 1940 (dissolved 1965), Margaret Pierce and, secondly, in 1973, Jennifer Jones, who survives him with three sons of his first marriage. Patrick Mollison, born March 17 1914, died November 26 2011