General practitioner who showed that shingles was caused by reactivation of the chickenpox virus

Edgar Hope Simpson was one of the outstanding general practitioner researchers of the 20th century. In addition to working full time in family practice he charted precisely the pattern of the common diseases that he saw clinically.

In 1940 his wife gave him Wensleydale general practitioner William Pickles' then new book Epidemiology in Country Practice. Hope-Simpson modelled his approach on this, and he exchanged visits with Pickles. Eventually he surpassed even Pickles' work.

The bulk of his interest was in infectious diseases. He was self taught and without any formal epidemiological or research training, but he learnt fast. He established a small epidemiological research unit around his practice in 1946 and chaired a Medical Research Council committee.

He started to write papers, particularly on chickenpox and herpes zoster, in the 1940s and 1950s, which were published in the Lancet and the BMJ, and he produced a series of publications of which many professors would be proud.

Chickenpox and shingles were known to be related, but how? Experts at the time were suggesting that two different viruses existed. Hope-Simpson increasingly believed there was only one, but how to prove it? In the end, he took his small team of research colleagues to the Island of Yell in the Shetlands in 1953 and literally followed up every known case in a much closed community. He was empowered by local islanders' memories for occurrences and dates. By 1962, new microbiological techniques enabled him to prove his point.

Only a great intellect could have conceived this possibility—that, remarkably, a virus could commonly lie dormant in the human body, for years, indeed decades, and then reappear in another form. Only an unusually determined researcher could have pursued the idea through fieldwork in the natural history tradition.

Hope-Simpson delivered his conclusion in the Albert Wander lecture of 1965, very properly and modestly describing it as his “hypothesis.” His report became one of the most cited general practitioner publications. This was world class research in clinical medicine and Hope-Simpson made probably the most important clinical discovery in general practice in the 20th century.

Later the virus, now known as the varicella zoster virus (VZV), was identified and isolated, and the researcher responsible received a Nobel prize. Later still, a therapy for herpes zoster was developed and that research worker, too, received a Nobel prize.

Hope-Simpson never stopped thinking and reading, made many observations, and wrote a textbook on influenza. He retained his faculties until just before he died, saying how much he loved life, even in his final week.

His life was shaped by his Christian faith, and at the beginning of the second world war he declined to be a combatant and appeared before a tribunal. He was to practise as a Quaker for the rest of his long life. At the Society of Friends, he would put his arm around newcomers and encourage them into the group. He had a good sense of humour and practised the Quaker principles of simplicity and humility.

Hope-Simpson's work was recognised in many ways, by many people, and many organisations. He received an OBE, the Stuart prize from the BMA, the Kuenssberg prize from the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), and an award from the International Society of Biometereology. The VZV Foundation in the United States gave him its gold medal in 1999. The then president of the Royal College of General Practitioners presented him with the George Abercrombie award, for outstanding contributions to the literature, in his home, when he was over 90.

Hope-Simpson's practice was used as a model in 1994 when the RCGP introduced research practices, which later became NHS research and development general practices.

His first wife died after a long illness, during which he was an exemplary carer. He remarried, when over 90, and leaves his second wife, Julia; a daughter; and four grandchildren.

Robert Edgar Hope-Simpson, former general practitioner Dorset and Gloucestershire (b 1908; q St Thomas's Hospital, London, 1932; OBE, FRCGP, Hon FFPHM), d 5 July 2003.