John Lennard-Jones 1927–2019: physician and gastroenterologist

During his childhood and adolescence his main interest was the natural world; the birds and wild flowers that surrounded his semirural home in Cambridge and a diverse assembly of domestic animals for which he cared including geese, hens, ducks, rabbits, a ferret (Joey) and a goat. [...]established as a clinician and an investigator he went on to become one of the world experts on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), leading major clinical trials in the assessment of severity in acute colitis and in the treatment of IBD. The findings of many of these trials had a major influence on IBD treatment, notably the efficacy of topical therapy in ulcerative colitis, the powerful effect of immunosuppressive therapy in maintenance of remission in Crohn’s disease and importantly the lack of efficacy of long-term oral steroids for maintenance of remission in ulcerative colitis.