Ralph George Hendrickse

摘要

Paediatrician and specialist in tropical child health. Born 5 November 1926 in Cape Town, South Africa, died 6 May 2010 in Heswall, Wirral, England, aged 83.At an early age, Ralph demonstrated evidence of his superior intelligence, matriculating from Livingston High School, Cape Town at 15 and gaining acceptance to Cape Town University Medical School at only 16 years of age where he was the youngest student in his class. At that time, life was difficult and restrictive for students classified as 'non-white' in the university. For instance, they were not allowed to attend autopsies on white patients. However, this was to his advantage and that of the handful of coloured students in his class, for one of the pathologists used to give them regular, outstanding tutorials on the organs outside the mortuary. Ralph went on to gain first place in his class. Fifty years later he was invited back to Cape Town to receive a DSc in Medicine, Honoris Causa, which was the first in paediatrics awarded by the university.