Bramwell Cook (gastroenterologist)

Cook was the son of Alfred Bramwell Cook and Dorothy Frances Cook (née Money). He was born in Gujarat, India, where his father was a Salvation Army missionary and doctor, and spent most of his first 16 years there.[1][2][3] He was educated at Breeks Memorial School in Tamil Nadu from 1942 to 1951, apart from a year at St Andrew's College in Christchurch in 1947–48, before completing his secondary education at Christchurch Boys' High School in 1952 and 1953.[1][3] After a year at Canterbury University College, he went on to the University of Otago, graduating MB ChB in 1959.[1][4] Cook married Shirley Ann Hay in 1958, and the couple went on to have three children.[1][5]

Cook spent his working life from 1960 to 2002 at hospitals in Christchurch, apart from five years in London, England, and Michigan, USA, between 1964 and 1969. He was a clinical lecturer at the Christchurch School of Medicine from 1973 to 2003.[1][3] Specialising in gastroenterology, Cook's main area of expertise was in the diagnosis and treatment of coeliac disease,[3] and in a study between 1970 and 1999 he and his co-workers showed that the prevalence of the disease in New Zealand was up to seven times greater than had previously been diagnosed.[6]

Cook served on the executive of the New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology between 1970 and 1978, and was its president from 1974 to 1976.[1] He was patron of the Coeliac Society of New Zealand,[7] and held advisory roles with various bodies including the Department of Health, the New Zealand Medical Association, and the Nutrition Society of New Zealand.[1]

Active in the Salvation Army, Cook did voluntary work for that organisation from 1974.[3] In later years he served as archivist for the New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology, and wrote a number of books and papers on New Zealand medical history and the history of the Salvation Army in New Zealand.

Cook died in Christchurch on 3 March 2017.[8]

Cook became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1973.[1] He was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to medicine and the community.[9]

• Cook, H. Bramwell, Michael J. Burt, Judith A. Collett, Martin R. Whitehead, Christopher Ma Frampton, and Bruce A. Chapman. "Adult coeliac disease: prevalence and clinical significance." Journal of gastroenterology and hepatology 15, no. 9 (2000): 1032–1036.
• Collett, J. A., M. J. Burt, C. M. Frampton, K. H. Yeo, T. M. Chapman, R. C. Buttimore, H. B. Cook, and B. A. Chapman. "Seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori in the adult population of Christchurch: risk factors and relationship to dyspeptic symptoms and iron studies." The New Zealand Medical Journal 112, no. 1093 (1999): 292–295.
• Clark, Sonya A., H. Bramwell Cook, Robert B. G. Oxner, Helen B. Angus, Peter M. George, and Robin Fraser. "Defenestration of hepatic sinusoids as a cause of hyperlipoproteinaemia in alcoholics." The Lancet 332, no. 8622 (1988): 1225–1227.
• Cook, H. Bramwell, J. E. Lennard-Jones, S. M. Sherif, and H. S. Wiggins. "Measurement of tryptic activity in intestinal juice as a diagnostic test of pancreatic disease." Gut 8, no. 4 (1967): 408–414.