Professor Otto Wolff

Professor Otto Wolff, who died on April 27 aged 90, was a medical scientist and paediatrician at the forefront of postwar advances in the care of children in Britain; he was Nuffield Professor of Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and president of the British Paediatric Association.

Otto Herbert Wolff was born in Hamburg on January 10 1920, the younger of two boys. His father, Herbert, had been born in Manchester to a German father and British mother, and so had dual nationality – which was to prove invaluable. Herbert Wolff served as a doctor with the German Army during the Great War, and in the years after the conflict the family lived comfortably in Germany.

Despite his Jewish origins, Otto got on well with his classmates. But in 1936, aged 16, he was sent to a crammer in London so that he could follow his brother Heinz to Cambridge to read Medicine. The following year the whole family moved to England, where his father found that his medical degree (from Strasbourg) was not recognised – thus he studied at medical school in Manchester while his two boys were studying Medicine in Cambridge.

Otto's next move was to University College Hospital in London; this was during the height of the Blitz, and the faculty was evacuated to Cardiff, the students being accompanied by the eminent cardiologist Sir Thomas Lewis in loco parentis.

Wolff spent the rest of the war serving with the RAMC, initially in North Africa, where he was in charge of a smallpox hospital. When the campaign moved to Italy he was responsible for caring for Italian prisoners of war. If declared ill, prisoners would be allowed home to their families; Wolff found it hard to maintain a sceptical view when presented with what were often fictitious ailments.

A chance meeting with a senior physician resulted in Wolff's going after the war to Birmingham to train as a paediatrician under Sir Leonard Parsons. It was there that he developed his interest in the scientific aspects of medicine and learnt biochemical techniques in the laboratory of Harold Salt.

Before long he discovered a new disorder of fat metabolism – abetaliporoteinaemia – and was involved in the development of special diets for babies with phenylketonuria, one of the most common metabolic problems. In 1955 he took a short sabbatical in New York, where he met others working on fat metabolism.

In Birmingham clinical academics were asked to act as tutors for groups of medical students. Wolff and his wife Jill would have his group for dinner every few weeks, when he would leave it to them to decide what they wished to discuss. This was the beginning of a lifelong habit of entertaining with excellent food, good conversation and music.

In 1965 he was appointed the second Nuffield Professor of Child Health at the Institute of Child Health in London and a consultant paediatrician at Great Ormond Street. He was the first trained scientist to be appointed to a clinical chair, and he used the post to promote understanding of the scientific basis of the care of babies and children.

He was also very aware of the psychosocial needs of children and families, and regularly undertook ward rounds with Lionel Herzov, a child psychiatrist. June Lloyd (later Baroness Lloyd of Highbury) joined him as senior lecturer and together they developed their metabolic work. In 1960 Wolff was the senior author of the Lancet paper describing Edwards syndrome, an abnormality of chromosomes akin to Downs syndrome.

Wolff was an excellent clinician who always insisted on at least 45 minutes for each new patient consultation. To him, the feelings of a patient were as important as his or her physical wellbeing.

In 1976 Wolff became president of the British Paediatric Association, and spent much of his time developing the case for the formation of a separate College of Paediatrics to fulfil the needs of this rapidly growing speciality. He was disappointed when the members of the association turned down his plans, but he had done the groundwork for a college and was delighted when the Queen granted a Royal Charter to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in 1996.

Wolff played the piano from a young age (he was given a virginal on his 12th birthday), and music remained an important part of his life. At his house in Islington, north London, he had a Steinway and would play for 20 minutes every morning before leaving for work. He was happiest when friends came for an excellent meal prepared by Jill and an evening playing chamber music.

A tall, slender man, Wolff was somewhat austere, highly intelligent and always gracious – his trainees hated to upset him as it would make him miserable for the rest of the day. His patients held him in great affection, some of them keeping in touch with him for many years.

A poor sleeper, at night he kept a flask of coffee and a plate of neatly-cut marmalade sandwiches at his bedside. The same fare invariably accompanied him on his travels, stowed in his briefcase.

Otto Wolff was appointed CBE in 1985, and awarded the James Spence medal of the British Paediatric Association in 1988.

He married, in 1952, Jill Freeborough, a medical student in Birmingham. She died in 2002, and he is survived by their two children.