November 4th 2006, six months after his seventieth birthday, friends from far and near met in MRC, Fajara to pay tribute to Professor Hilton Whittle and to celebrate the life of this great man. In recognition of his pioneering research in the field of Tropical Medicine, present and past colleagues acknowledged Hilton’s inspiration to several generations of researchers and the powerful legacy he has created for future research. The programme, organised by Dr Assan Jaye and Dr Katie Flanagan, was chaired by Dr Jaye and Professor Sarah Rowland-Jones.

In his opening remarks Professor Tumani Corrah gave a brief synopsis of Professor Whittle’s heritage and his boyhood days. Hilton was born in South Africa; his paternal grandfather came from a line of farmers, but his father who was very good in mathematics became an accomplished accountant. His maternal grandparents were in the commercial sector; they owned major shops in Durban.

Hilton attended boarding school at a tender age. At 17, he went to read Agriculture at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, where his love of the environment and nature is thought to have begun. After university, he tried accountancy, and although like his dad he was good with figures, he did not want to continue in that field. He quickly moved on to laboratory work; his first job was working with helminthes, which gave him his first scientific publication. Hilton then moved to England and was enrolled at the University of Birmingham medical school. There he met Anita who was an arts student at the University.

Professors Eldryd Parry, Brian Greenwood, David Warrell and Dr Musa Hassan-King reminisced about Hilton’s early life as a research scientist in the seventies working at the Amadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria, Northern Nigeria. They used the theme ‘Hilton the paediatrician and clinical investigator’.

Hilton worked on meningococcal diseases, sleeping sickness, scabies and measles. He also studied and published on the genetic susceptibility to infectious diseases, the epidemiology of infections due to Neisseria meningitidis and nasopharyngeal carriage, the prevention of secondary cases of meningococcal disease in household contacts by vaccination, the effect on the immune response in controlling infections and persistent infection in malnourished children. With colleagues from ABU, Hilton developed the rapid latex test for diagnosis of meningitis. The prototype of this test was later used in a commercial assay.

In his presentation, Eldryd Parry, Director of the Tropical Health and Education Trust stated that he would always remember how Hilton was the first to note the importance of easing of restlessness and the relief of headaches in meningitis patients. These observations have become two of the most important features in the management of meningitis.

David Warrell said that it was Hilton who suggested that they test for venom antigen or antibody to make the necessary confirmation of snakebite; this happened at a time when the Zaria team was being swamped with suspected cases of snakebite. Subsequently, with Brian Greenwood and others, they developed EIA and diagnostic tools to detect venom antigen and antibody.

During his presentation, David Warrell spoke about some of Hilton’s ‘extracurricular’ activities, such as his love of fishing. Indeed, Hilton the Fisherman was a common theme highlighted by many other speakers. Hilton’s and Anita’s long-standing love for indigo was also mentioned; they frequently made visits to the areas in Nigeria where Indigo was being used. David Warrell also amused his audience by giving accounts of Hilton’s competitiveness in sports - Hilton the Sportsman. To date, his opponents know that this is a man who wants to win every game of a tennis match.

Hilton’s unique dress sense, array of hats and boots, constructive criticism and sound advice were the themes of Musa Hassan-King’s presentation. Musa commented that although Hilton’s criticism at times can be difficult to swallow, it was always well meaning.

Moving on from Zaria and early MRC memories to the more recent past and present, Professor Sarah Rowland-Jones recounted her experience working as a visiting scientist in the Virology department at MRC, Fajara, with Hilton as her supervisor. She remarked that she has enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with him over the years working on HIV immunology. More recently, when she joined the unit as Director of Research, she recollected Sam McConkey telling her to always go to Hilton when she has ideas because if she thinks they are new, Hilton has had them before or has worked on them in one way or the other.

The next speaker, Dr Peter Aaby, started working with Hilton in Bissau in the mid-seventies. They set up the Bandim Health Project in 1978, when mortality in children under 5 years in Southern Bissau was 500/1000. From these studies they have shown that the WHO recommended protocol for measles vaccination at 9 months of age, established in 1982, was not the best policy to protect children. In 1985, they initiated a project of early delivery of medium-titre Edmonston Zagreb measles vaccine in Bissau. The vaccine was given at 4 months of age instead of 9 months and was shown to be fully protective and had slightly lower mortality than the WHO recommendation. Twenty years of research have shown that antibodies are not 100% protective against measles. However measles in vaccinated children is much less severe than measles in unvaccinated children.

Dr Kevin Marsh came from Kilifi, Kenya to pay tribute to Hilton. He worked at MRC, Fajara in the eighties and has shared with Hilton his interest on immunity to malaria. He emphasised that the main conclusion after 25 years of research is that although humans become immune, there is still no clear answer as to how that happens.

Prof David Mabey from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine worked with Hilton at MRC during the early 1980s and beyond on genital chlamydial infection in The Gambia. They showed that genital and neonatal chlamydial infections are common in a trachoma endemic country. These studies provided the first data on the epidemiology of chlamydia in Africa.

Professor Adrian Hill (University of Oxford), is also a long term collaborator of the MRC unit and has worked with Hilton on the genetic susceptibility to malaria and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. He emphasised that Hilton achieved a great deal in the seventies and eighties with the application of basic scientific research tools. 20-30 years later with the use of more sophisticated technology such as genomic, linkage disequilibrium, whole genome shotgun, microarray, knock-out etc, Hilton and others have confirmed the earlier findings. In particular he mentioned his work identifying genetic linkage in meningococcal meningitis. Hilton in 1983 used the powerject gene gun to deliver HBV vaccine intradermally to young Gambians. Nowadays, this vaccination technique is considered as a revolutionary advance in vaccine technology. We now know why Hilton is so cautious about adopting so-called ‘new technology’, he, is certainly someone who has "been there and done that" before.

Pa Tamba Ngum spoke on behalf of all the young scientists who have been lucky enough to have Hilton as a supervisor and a mentor. The list of successful students is very long, and they all respect and admire him. Pa Tamba commented that Hilton’s mentoring spirit is second to none and that he does not limit his help to work related issues.

Maimuna Mendy emphasised Hilton as a symbol of an African father, his spirit of teaching, sharing and reaching out to all. These qualities are manifested in his interaction with Gambians of all walks of life and in his shared interest with many, his love for Gambian and African living art.

A video contribution from some of his Gambian friends (Christoph Badgie, Mrs Mariama, Mr Seedy Rahman, Mr. Souheil Nachiff, Mrs. Marion Lloyd-Evans and Dr Peter Ndow) who were not present was shown. The main theme was Hilton’s love of Gambian and African life; his art collection, include artifacts from Guinea Bissau, Mali and Guinea, his superlative culinary skills, his love of fishing, African music (particularly Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Salif Keita, Sunny Ade, Ali Farka Toure, Baba Maal, Franco, Papa Wemba, Cesaria Evora, Youssou Ndour), horticulture, poultry farming and gardening and predilection for Hot! Hot! Hot! pepper sauces.

Other speakers included Dr Fatoumatta Sisay-Joof, Dr Abraham Alabi, Sr. Vivat Thomas-Njie. They spoke about Hilton as a renowned scientist, a clinician, a mentor, a father, a friend and an adviser.

Hilton did have the last word. He thanked everyone for coming, the organisers and speakers for organising such a memorable day

The day ended with a rounders match between MRC staff and the Hilton Whittle associates. Members of the Whittle associates team were Hilton, Eldryd Parry, David Warrell, Brian Greenwood, Adrian Hill, and David Mabey; the MRC team was made up of Assan Jaye, Jerreh Sanyang, Martin Antonio, among others. The match was won by The Whittle' associates with an all-out-catch.

We all join his family, Anita, Sally, Lisa, Nat, Mark, Lawrence, Arun and Oliver to wish Hilton a very happy seventieth year and look forward to celebrating many more birthdays.

Thanks to all who contributed in one way or another to make this day a great success, special thanks to colleagues who had travelled from abroad.