Sam Gibbs was a consultant dermatologist at Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust then Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, having spent six years at Mungwanza Hospital in rural north west Tanzania at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis and the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees escaping from civil wars in Rwanda and Burundi.
Sam Simon Sebastian Gibbs was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, to physician Roland Geoffrey Gibbs (known as Ronnie) and his wife Joan Margaret (née Wiles). Sam attended the preparatory school St Faith’s in Cambridge and was then sent to the private school Marlborough College in Wiltshire.
He began his university education at Trinity Hall College, Cambridge, with a BSc in Medical Science and Social and Political Science, then switched to the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in London, gaining his medical degree in 1983. Sam’s brother Jeremy also qualified in medicine, becoming a consultant neurologist.
Post-qualification, Sam spent six years in a variety of trainee roles, beginning in London for two years at the North Middlesex and Central Middlesex Hospitals, then moving back to Norwich for SHO and locum registrar roles in different medical specialties, including three years in vocational training for general practice. In 1989 his career took a very different turn when he decided to work as a Church Mission Society partner in Africa, a long-held desire described in his CV:
‘From the very beginning of my medical training my ambition was to work for a time as a physician in the developing world. 6 years spent working in a rural African district hospital provided a unique and very broad experience of life and medical practice in a completely different culture. Murgwanza Hospital is in the remote north west of Tanzania serving a population of 190,000 with 180 beds. In 1994 it became one of two referral hospitals serving the refugee population of about 450,000 from Rwanda and Burundi.
I was involved in a very broad spectrum of medical practice ranging from surgery and obstetrics to paediatrics and community medicine as well as contributing to the general management of hospital and community services. My main interests were general medicine, dermatology, continuing medical education for doctors, medical assistants and nurses and malaria management and prevention.’
While in Tanzania Sam met and married Miranda Sujithra (née Poomugham) from Kerala, India in 1991. Miranda was also a CMS mission partner, and the couple had a daughter and a son. Sam became fascinated by dermatology and decided to follow a career path in the specialty. Returning to the UK in 1995, he began training in dermatology effectively from scratch, starting again as a senior house officer and receiving his CCST in 2001.
Sam’s first consultant role was as consultant dermatologist at Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust. On becoming an RCP Fellow in 2005, he described the role as having more than matched his expectations and ambition of working effectively in a team providing a high quality service for all patients with diseases of the skin. He was involved in expanding the dermatology team to incorporate two GPs with a special interest in dermatology and one nurse practitioner, and provided more dermatology CME for local GPs in the form of biannual skin club meetings and talks given in local practices. By 2005, he had written over 25 papers on aspects of dermatology, including practising in rural Africa.
In 2010 he moved to Swindon to take up the role of consultant dermatologist at the Great Western Hospital, also becoming undergraduate tutor in dermatology for the University of Bristol. In their BMJ obituary for him, consultant dermatologist colleague Dr Lindsay Whittam and Sam’s brother Jeremy described Sam as having ‘a unique combination of intelligence, warmth, compassion, and good humour, qualities that made him a wonderful person as well as an accomplished doctor and teacher. He was widely liked and respected by his patients and colleagues.’
Outside of medicine, he was interested in racquet sports, walking and music, particularly jazz. He was an accomplished musician, playing jazz double bass and Spanish guitar. His strong faith underpinned his life and career, and he became a lay reader for the Diocese of Bristol.
Sam died from disseminated lung cancer on 17 April, leaving his wife Miranda, daughter Jeni, son Jonny and three older siblings Caroline, Jeremy and Jonny, and his mother Joan.
RCP editor
Sources/further reading
Whittam L, Gibbs J. Sam Simon Sebastian Gibbs BMJ 2020; 371 :m4770 doi:10.1136/bmj.m4770. https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4770 [Accessed 20 November 2024]
Kings G. Nourishing Memories, Chapter 8: Curacy in Harlesden, London. The Living Church. 2023. https://livingchurch.org/covenant/nourishing-memories-chapter-8-curacy-in-harlesden-london/
Gibbs S. Curriculum Vitae. RCP Fellowship Form and associated private papers. 2005.