David Paul de Bono was the British Heart Foundation professor of cardiology at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester. He was born in Malta, where his father, Joseph Edward Debono [Munk’s Roll, Vol.VI, p.145] was professor of medicine. His mother Josephine née Burns was a journalist. He was educated at St Edward’s College, Malta, and then Downside School. He went on to study medicine at Cambridge and St George’s Hospital. He gained first class honours and distinctions in several subjects in his finals.

From 1973 to 1976 he was MRC junior research fellow at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. For the next three years he was a clinical lecturer at Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and then a senior registrar. He initially undertook research into the involvement of the vascular endothelial during rejection of renal transplants. It seemed he might become a nephrologist, but he then switched to cardiology.

In 1979 he was appointed as a consultant cardiologist at the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh. He maintained an active research programme there, which included early studies on coronary thrombosis. In 1989 he moved to Leicester, where he was appointed to the British Heart Foundation chair. His research included work into coronary artery disease among Asians, restenosis after balloon angioplasty, and clinical audit, especially after invasive procedures.

He was the editor of the International Journal of Cardiology. He wrote Practical coronary thrombolysis (Oxford, Blackwell Scientific, 1990). He chaired the joint working party of the British Cardiac Society and the College on the management of angina.

He married Anne Mary née Fingleton, who was also a doctor, in 1971. They had two sons, John and Joe. He died from motor neurone disease.

RCP editor

[Brit.med.J.,1999,319,127;Proc.R.Coll.Physicians.Edinb,1999;29:270-272]