It Started in a Cupboard by Kenneth Calman sampler
ir Kenneth Calman’s extraordinary life story is based on a passionate love of learning – and it all began with him doing his homework by candlelight in a cupboard of his mum’s Glasgow council house. He went on to be at the forefront of three different medical revolutions – oncology, palliative care and the use of the arts in medical education – and to help guide the country through the BSE/VCJD health crisis. As Scotland’s and then England’s Chief Medical Officer the reforms he pushed through saved many lives by improving both cancer care and the training of doctors. Few people know as much about learning, laughter, health and happiness – or, come to that, sundials, beagles, cathedrals and cartoons. And few people have touched so many lives, especially those of the seriously ill and dying, with quite as much grace, humour and humanity.
ir Kenneth Calman’s extraordinary life story is based on a passionate love of learning – and it all began with him doing his homework by candlelight in a cupboard of his mum’s Glasgow council house. He went on to be at the forefront of three different medical revolutions – oncology, palliative care and the use of the arts in medical education – and to help guide the country through the BSE/VCJD health crisis. As Scotland’s and then England’s Chief Medical Officer the reforms he pushed through saved many lives by improving both cancer care and the training of doctors.
Few people know as much about learning, laughter, health and happiness – or, come to that, sundials, beagles, cathedrals and cartoons. And few people have touched so many lives, especially those of the seriously ill and dying, with quite as much grace, humour and humanity.
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it started <strong>in</strong> a cupboard<br />
his Boys’ Brigade pillbox cap, assiduously learn<strong>in</strong>g about march<strong>in</strong>g<br />
and play<strong>in</strong>g the drums <strong>in</strong> its pipe band (for which Norman played<br />
the bagpipes) didn’t have a clue what career he wanted to pursue. I<br />
followed the old Life Boy mantra and put my heart <strong>in</strong>to everyth<strong>in</strong>g<br />
they taught me, and ended up as the troop’s best-drilled recruit and<br />
w<strong>in</strong>ner of the trophy for ‘best all-round boy’. I mightn’t have known<br />
what I wanted to do with my life at that stage, but the Boys’ Brigade<br />
gave me a sense of purpose. <strong>It</strong>s motto of ‘Sure and steadfast’ could just<br />
as easily have been m<strong>in</strong>e too: I shared its Christian values and aims<br />
(‘the advancement of Christ’s k<strong>in</strong>gdom among Boys and the promotion<br />
of habits of obedience, reverence, discipl<strong>in</strong>e self-respect and all<br />
that tends towards a true Christian manl<strong>in</strong>ess’) and looked forward to<br />
the Bible study sessions that were every bit as important a part of our<br />
Sundays as were the parades. These were, as Billy Graham’s crusade<br />
made clear, different days: stronger <strong>in</strong> Christian faith than our own.<br />
Where St David’s had six Boys’ Brigades squads <strong>in</strong> my time, there now<br />
isn’t even one.<br />
Dur<strong>in</strong>g the week, I wore another uniform: the navy blazer of Allan<br />
Glen’s. This was a remarkable school, founded <strong>in</strong> the middle of<br />
the 19th century <strong>by</strong> a successful Glasgow bus<strong>in</strong>essman who left an<br />
endowment ‘to give a good practical education and preparation for<br />
trades or bus<strong>in</strong>esses, to between forty to fifty boys, the sons of tradesmen<br />
or persons <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>dustrial classes of society’. <strong>It</strong> did a lot more<br />
than that. Over the years, it established a reputation as be<strong>in</strong>g Scotland’s<br />
best school for teach<strong>in</strong>g science, and the roll call of its em<strong>in</strong>ent<br />
former pupils would prove the po<strong>in</strong>t. One of the most famous was the<br />
architect Charles Rennie Mac<strong>in</strong>tosh, and when I first started th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g<br />
seriously about my career, I thought that I might try to follow <strong>in</strong> his<br />
footsteps.<br />
At Allan Glen’s I developed a great <strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> science and technology,<br />
as might be expected. But the arts were also important to me,<br />
especially music, and I sang <strong>in</strong> the school choir. Through one of my<br />
longstand<strong>in</strong>g friends, Andrew Dobson, I was <strong>in</strong>troduced to classical<br />
music and bought my first records, F<strong>in</strong>landia <strong>by</strong> Sibelius and Beethoven’s<br />
Viol<strong>in</strong> Concerto. Andrew and I keep <strong>in</strong> touch and he still<br />
sends me terrible jokes. Pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g was also important at school, as was<br />
pottery, woodwork and metalwork. I loved mak<strong>in</strong>g th<strong>in</strong>gs. This was<br />
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