Eric Scowen was Professor of Medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was born in London on 22 April 1910 and trained at Bart's. After being chief assistant at the Royal Chest Hospital, he returned to Bart's as assistant physician in 1937, being made physician in 1946. He was appointed as the Professor of Medicine in 1961 and served Bart's with great distinction until he retired in 1975. As Chairman of the Council of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, he promoted the establishment of chairs of medical oncology throughout the United Kingdom. He was Chairman of the Committee on Safety of Drugs (later Safety of Medicine) and was a member of the board of advisers at King's centre of medical law and ethics. He received many honours, including the Fellowship of our College, of the Royal College of Pathologists and of the Royal College of General Practitioners. He died after a prolonged illness on 23 November 2001, not long after receiving the honorary Fellowship of King's College, London.