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'''Douglas Montagu Temple Gairdner''', FRCP (19 November 1910 – 10 May 1992) was a Scottish paediatrician, research scientist, academic and author. Gairdner was principally known for a number of research studies in neonatology at a time when that subject was being developed as perhaps the most rewarding application of basic physiology to patient care, and later his most important contributions as editor, firstly editing ''Recent Advances in Paediatrics'' and then of ''Archives of Disease in Childhood'' for 15 years, turning the latter into an international journal of repute with its exemplary standards of content and presentation.<ref>{{REFjournal

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Gairdner, the son of William Henry Temple Gairdner, an Anglican missionary, and grandson of Sir William Tennant Gairdner, KCB, a medical doctor and professor, was born in Scotland on 19 November 1910.<ref name="obit">{{REFjournal

}}</ref><ref name="spence">{{REFjournal

}}</ref> His mother was Mary Mitchell. He was the great-nephew of historian James Gairdner. Gairdner was named for his father's late friend, Douglas M. Thornton who had died three years before Gairdner's birth. Gairdner had four siblings. His very early life was spent in Egypt where his father was a missionary.<ref name="read">{{REFjournal

}}</ref> Gairdner's father died in 1928, when Gairdner was 17 years of age.

He read chemistry at the University of Oxford but switched to medicine, did clinical training at Middlesex Hospital and was awarded his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery Degree in 1936.<ref name="obit" /> He did his residency (house physician) in paediatrics at The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street in Bloomsbury, London in 1937-8.<ref name="obit" /><ref name="spence" /> Gairdner described his experience there in a memoir written a half-century later. He wrote, "I recall the sheer enjoyment of working there, but also the periods of overwhelming exhaustion."<ref>{{REFjournal

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His obituary in the ''British Medical Journal'' described Gairdner as "an outstanding figure in the development of British Paediatrics after the second world war". His statistics from the special care baby unit were "invaluable in monitoring trends in perinatal mortality and morbidity since 1950." He constantly produced important research over a range of topics and he improved the management of respiratory problems in the newborn. He was appointed editor of the ''Archives of Disease in Childhood'' in 1964, a position he held for 15 years, until his retirement in 1979. During that time the journal "steadily increased in size, scientific content, and international reputation."<ref name="obit" /><ref name="spence" /><ref name="editorial">{{REFjournal

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Gairdner's 1949 article, ''The Fate of the Foreskin: A Study of Circumcision'',<ref name="fate">{{REFjournal

}}</ref> was described as "a model of perceptive and pungent writing."<ref name="spence" /> It concluded that if circumcision became uncommon it would result in "the saving of about 16 children's lives lost from circumcision each year in this country..."<ref name="fate"/> According to Wallerstein, the article "began to affect the practice of circumcision by the British".<ref>{{REFjournal

}}</ref> Gairdner was pleased with the success of the article.<ref name="obit" /> Gairdner also opposed unnecessary tonsillectomy, drawing attention to the risks of the operation at the time (1951)<ref>{{REFjournal

}}</ref> and suggested more conservative ways of treating repeated respiratory infections.<ref>{{REFjournal

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Gairdner's research interests included Schōnlein-Henoch purpura,<ref>{{REFjournal

}}</ref> nephrotic syndrome, [[Circumcision|circumcision]], and the formation of red blood cells in infancy.<ref>{{REFjournal

}}</ref> He made contributions to the field of neonatology with studies on improving the management of respiratory problems of the newborn. PubMed lists sixty-one published papers by Dr Gairdner.

The James Spence Medal of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health was awarded to Gairdner in 1976.<ref name="obit" /><ref name="spence" /> He received the Dawson Williams Prize<ref>{{REFjournal

}}</ref> of the British Medical Association in 1978 for his creative editing of the ''Archives of Disease in Childhood''.<ref name="editorial" /> Gairdner vacationed several times in Portugal as guest of the Portuguese Academy of Paediatrics where he won the respect of the local paediatricians who called him "the best paediatric ambassador who ever came to Portugal."<ref>{{REFjournal

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He was described as a man with a strong sense of social responsibility who took politics seriously and a radical by temperament who "found it difficult to combine his feel for tradition with the need for change."<ref name="spence" />

Gairdner died on 10 May 1992 at the age of 81. He was survived by his wife, Nancy, three daughters, and five grandchildren.<ref name="obit" />

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