The South African
Professor Peter Herbert Beighton
MD, PhD, FRCPCH, FRS (SA)
1934-2023
Professor Peter Beighton, who passed away in Cape Town on 14 June 2023 shortly before his 89th birthday, was a founder member of the Cape Town Branch and a Life member of the South African Military History Society.
He was born in Bolton in England and educated at the Arnold School in Blackpool, St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London University and Edinburgh University.
In 1959 he joined the British Territorial Army Parachute Regiment and had been awarded his wings when he commenced his two year national service in June 1960. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps and posted to 23 Parachute Field Ambulance at Aldershot before being deployed to 32 Parachute Light Regiment.
Soon after members of the Irish UNO Contingent had been killed in the Congo he volunteered to be seconded to the Ghana Army for service with the British Commonwealth Contingent there.
After his arrival in Accra on New Year's Day in 1961 he served at the Military Hospital there. He was then transferred to Takoradi as Medical Officer to 4 Ghana Rifles, which was flown to the Congo soon afterwards, to replace 1 Ghana Rifles which had mutinied and been sent home. He returned to Accra in September 1961.
In May 1972 he was appointed the first Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Cape Town where he remained until his retirement in 1999.
He was awarded a Master of Philosophy in History by external thesis degree at the University of Lancaster, UK, in 1999.
‘Off to the next great adventure’
Colour version of photograph in Journal
He wrote 12 Books and over 400 medical articles. He was particularly interested in inherited skeletal disorders. His wife Greta, an early research assistant of his before they married, shared his interest in medical genetics and coauthored a couple of books with him. He was widowed in 2017.
His special military history interest was the role of the St John Ambulance during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. He wrote two books on the subject.
For his outstanding contribution to medical research Professor Beighton was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe (Bronze) in 2002.
He was a very brilliant and remarkable man who will be greatly missed.
Mac Bisset
Cape Town
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