Barry Kay departed this life towards the end of 2020, aged 81. He was emeritus Professor of Allergy and Immunology at Imperial College London and, before he retired from clinical work, a consultant allergist at the nearby Brompton Hospital. He co-founded Circassia, an Imperial College biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of vaccines for allergen immunotherapy. To members of the BSACI and hundreds of allergists and asthma researchers across the world, Barry needs no introduction. He served as president of the BSACI and the EAACI, as co-editor of Clinical & Experimental Allergy, as specialist adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on Allergy and co-authored some 500 research papers and review articles as well as editing his textbook “Allergy and Allergic Diseases”.
Barry was born in Northampton, the son of Eva Pearcey, a dress designer, and Tony Chambers, an area manager of a washing machine company. When Eva later married again, Barry adopted the surname of his stepfather, Harry Kay. He had an extraordinary childhood, even set against the life of any child growing up during the Second World War. It was so extraordinary, in fact, that he felt compelled to record it in his autobiography which he entitled “Whatever Happened to Barry Chambers?” and which is available now from booksellers. He attended a typical boys’ boarding school in Peterborough and subsequently gained a place at Edinburgh medical school. He met his wife and life-long partner Rosemary (neé Johnstone), who sang in one of the choirs he conducted, in his final year at Edinburgh and they married in 1963. Barry was a keen musician even then, and admits in his book that he spent so much time on music while at Edinburgh it is a wonder that he qualified in medicine.
Even then he had the energy and ambition that all who know Barry know so well. He was determined not to spend his career just diagnosing and treating patients, but uncovering the cause of disease. Which disease, though? In his final year, while on a clinical attachment to the City Hospital in London with Professor Sir John Crofton and Dr Andrew Douglas, whom Barry described as two of the most remarkable doctors he ever met, he helped to admit a girl aged about 20 with “status asthmaticus”. She was desperately ill but the medical registrar was confident that she would respond to steroids. During the night, however, she died. Barry records in his book that he was profoundly upset, and even Dr Douglas close to tears. From then on his mind was made up, and he resolved to forge an academic career researching asthma. He managed to secure a doctoral post with Professor Robin Coombs at the then new Cambridge School of Immunology, followed by a year of postdoctoral research at Harvard University in 1970-71. Returning to Edinburgh University, he was appointed lecturer in respiratory medicine and then became deputy director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service.
By 1980 his goal was in sight: he was appointed to his chair at Imperial College, where he spent the remainder of his career. During that time, he supervised some 40 PhD students, many of whom are now professors around the world, and advanced insight into the pathogenesis of asthma with his endless zeal and searching for new ideas, new techniques and new thinking. He didn’t abandon music either: he played various wind instruments and the bassoon to a high standard, with a particular love for Baroque music.
Barry is survived by his wife Rosemary, his three daughters, Emma, Rebecca and Beth, and his six grandchildren, Sarah, Hugh, Percy, Skye, Spencer and Ben.
Written by Chris Corrigan 25/01/2021