Herbert Michael Gilles (10 September 1921 – 20 October 2015) was a Maltese-British physician and professor of tropical medicine, recognized as a leading expert in his field.[1] [2]
Gilles was born to Maltese parents (the family name was originally Galea)[3] living in Port Said, Egypt, and went to a French school there until the age of 11. He then became a boarding school student for his secondary education at St. Edward's College, Malta.[2] After completing his secondary education, he studied at the Royal University of Malta, where he received his BSc in 1943. In 1943 he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford but WW II prevented him from utilizing the Rhodes Scholarship. During WW II, Gilles served from 1940 to 1944 as an officer/cadet in the Royal Malta Artillery; during the Siege of Malta, he manned one of the anti-aircraft batteries. He qualified at the Royal University of Malta as MD in 1946. In 1948 he moved to England,[3] where he, by means of his Rhodes Scholarship, received further education at the University of Oxford, qualifying MSc in 1951.[2]
He practised as a house physician at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary while he studied for a Diploma in Tropical Medicine at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. From 1954 to 1958 he was in The Gambia working at a poorly equipped laboratory belonging to the UK Medical Research Council. Despite the rudimentary laboratory, Gilles and his supervisor Ian McGregor were able to do important research on antibodies to malaria.[1]
At the University of Ibadan he met Adetokunbo Lucas, who worked with Gilles to create suitable teaching materials in tropical medicine.[4] [5] In 1965 Gilles returned to Liverpool as a senior lecturer at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine[6] and was appointed there in 1970 a professor of tropical medicine, retiring as professor emeritus in 1986.[1] In addition to his professorship, he was also dean to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine from 1978 to 1983.[2] He was for a number of years a visiting professor at the University of Malta, travelling to Malta three times a year.[3]
Gilles was the author or coauthor of several books and over 150 papers in scientific journals.[2]
He married Wilhelmina (Mina) Caruana on 2 February 1955. They had three sons and a daughter before Mina's death in 1972, in a car accident. He subsequently married Dr Mejra Kocic Dimitri, who died in 2009. He died in Totnes in 2015 and was survived by his four children and six grandchildren.[3]