William Alan Weston

Alan was born in Liverpool on 9 December 1922. Soon after leaving school, he enlisted in the Royal Navy and during World War II served in the Pacific Fleet.

He qualified in medicine at the University of Liverpool in 1952 and worked as a general practitioner in the Liverpool area from 1953-1958. From 1958-1960, he worked as a Government Medical Officer for the Federal Department of Health, Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

On returning to England, he completed 3 years’ training in psychiatry, neurology and neurosurgery at the Professorial Unit and various other institutions in the Manchester Hospital Board Region. He completed his registrar and senior registrar training in 1965, and became Medical Officer at HM Prison Wakefield.

In 1967, he was appointed consultant forensic psychiatrist to the Home Office and the Yorkshire Regional Health Authority. He provided a variety of services, including: psychiatric assessments at Stanley Royd Hospital and St James Hospital, consultant to the Drug Addiction Unit for Leeds and Wakefield, psychiatric consultant to the Regional Burns Unit at Pinderfields General Hospital, consultant to HM Prisons Leeds and Wakefield, and visiting consultant to approved schools in Leeds and Wakefield. He was also Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Leeds.

Over the years, he served as a member of various committees, including the Yorkshire Regional Planning Team for the Regional Secure Unit and the Committee on Mentally Abnormal Offenders under the chairmanship of Lord Butler of Saffron Walden.

In 1970, Alan obtained a Council of Europe Fellowship visiting facilities in West Germany and Austria. He was a member of numerous societies and associations. He had a number of articles published and received several awards for his work.

In 1978, he emigrated to Saskatoon, Canada to be Medical Director of the Regional Psychiatric Service. Later he worked in Ottawa before moving to Calgary, Alberta in 1982 where he was Clinical Director of the Forensic Assessment and Out-Patient Services. He was involved in teaching, planning and administration and was well known in the legal community for his extensive court work.

Alan worked until several weeks prior to being diagnosed with metastatic carcinoma of the brain. He died at the Rosedale Hospice in Calgary on 31 December 2003.

He will be remembered for his compassion and care of his staff and by the often-difficult patients and their families. His family and a wide circle of friends will sadly miss him.