I am both honoured but also very saddened to write this obituary of a very good friend and wound care colleague who unfortunately passed away recently.
Brian and I first met when he joined me as a member of the Wound Care Society (UK) committee in 1989. He then went on to be a founding member of the European Wound Management Association (EWMA) and served as EWMA’s treasurer from 1991 through 2006. From the time I first met him, we had many discussions on two of the subjects that we were both passionate about, promoting evidence-based practices in relation to wound care and the successes or failures of ‘our sports team’ — Liverpool Football Club.
Having completed his nurse’s training in New Zealand (his home country), he earned a BSc Microbiology at Massey University, Auckland before moving to the UK to complete his Masters in Nursing at King’s College, London in 1986. Brian then went on to join the academic team at King’s in 1987, beginning as a lecturer in the Department of Nursing Studies before being promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer and Head of Pre-registration Education (2001) for six years, during which he was instrumental in supporting colleagues to ensure students had an excellent education and learning experience at King’s. He left the faculty in 2006 to take up the post of Director of Nurse Education and Head of School at Universal College of Learning, in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Brian’s main area of professional expertise was, undoubtedly, wound care, and he moved to Smith and Nephew in 2011. Many clinicians, I have no doubt, will have quoted much of his published work and, in particular, refenced his articles discussing the risk of infection developing in the environment created by the use of and under various wound care products.
His most recent professional post, that of Director - Global Clinical Strategy Wound at Smith and Nephew, took him back to England in 2018.
Both at work and socially, Brian was very enthusiastic in whatever he did and great fun and a great storyteller (especially with a glass of Gewürtztraminer in hand), and I am sure that many of us/you will remember his humour when we had the opportunity to catch up with him during conference/focus group breaks and the like.
In summary, Brian was a devoted family man — he leaves behind a partner and daughter — who had a distinguished professional career and who will have, undoubtedly, left his mark on many of the colleagues and students he supported through their studies and career endeavours (remembr.com/brian.gilchrist).
In short, he was a friend and mentor to many, and he will be sadly missed by all who had the privilege to meet or know him.
Author(s)
Mark Collier
Nurse Consultant and Associate Lecturer – Tissue Viability & Chair of the Leg Ulcer Forum
(England and Wales), Lincolnshire (UK)