Born on 10 April 1906 at High Grange, Howden-le-Wear, Co Durham, the eldest son of Charles Arthur Pattison, mining engineer, and Annie Isabella Chilton, his wife. He was educated at Clifton House School, at Durham School, and at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne School of Medicine. He served as resident medical officer and surgical registrar at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was awarded the Rutherford Morison travelling scholarship and was thus able to visit Berlin, where he learnt much from Ferdinand Sauerbruch, and to spend a year at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, Mass, where he came under the influence of Harvey Cushing and was confirmed in his desire to devote his life to the surgery of the nervous system. On his return to England he established a neurosurgical clinic at the Newcastle Hospital, was appointed neurological surgeon to the Royal Infirmary and to the Children's Hospital, Sunderland, and on 8 February 1937 delivered an important lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons, as Hunterian professor, on Cushing's syndrome of basophile adenoma of the pituitary. He died on 7 June 1940, survived by his wife and one son. She was Vera Margaret French, daughter of Joseph J French, MD, whom he married on 16 June 1937. A martyr to asthma, Pattison had yet the courage and ability to establish the surgery of the nervous system on a sound and lasting basis in the north-east of England. He had great inventive power, was a clear thinker and a skilful craftsman. It was said of him that he had so delicate a touch as to be able to pass a catheter on a goldfish. Publications: Unforeseen dangers of blood-transfusion. *Newcastle med J* 1931, 11, 170-178. Ventriculography and encephalography. *Ibid* 1933, 13, 90-103. Tumours of the posterior cranial fossa occurring in childhood and adolescence. *Ibid* 1934, 14, 170-187. Epilepsy as a surgical problem. *Ibid* 1935, 15, 145-160. Considerations on head injuries. *Ibid* 1936, 16, 108-117. Supracallosal epidermoid cholesteatomata. *Lancet*, 1937, 2, 4303-1307. Surgical treatment of pituitary basophilism, with W G A Swan. *Lancet*, 1938, 1,1265-1269.