We were recently honoured to welcome Jon and Naomi Gerrard to The Downs Malvern. Their visit was especially meaningful, as Jon’s father, Dr John Watson Gerrard, attended The Downs in the 1920s — and his photo still hangs proudly in our school office as a member of the 1922 cricket team.
Dr Gerrard went on to lead an extraordinary life in medicine. Born in Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) in 1916, he was the son of a medical missionary. After attending The Downs and then Bryanston, he studied medicine at Oxford University, later serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II in North Africa, Italy, and Palestine.
Following the war, he trained as a paediatrician in Birmingham before continuing his studies at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. In 1951–52, working with Evelyn Hickmans and Dr Horst Bickel, Dr Gerrard helped pioneer the first successful treatment for phenylketonuria (PKU) — a genetic disorder that can cause severe brain damage if left untreated. Their discovery that a low phenylalanine diet could prevent this damage was a breakthrough in child health and led to the worldwide practice of screening newborns for PKU. In recognition of this achievement, the trio were awarded the John Scott Medal by the City of Philadelphia in 1962.
In 1955, Dr Gerrard moved to Saskatoon, Canada, where he became the founding head of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Saskatchewan. He remained there for decades, training hundreds of medical students and paediatricians, and treating generations of children with care and compassion. He also helped establish what is now known as the Alvin Buckwold Child Development Program.
A pioneer in allergy research, Dr Gerrard was one of the early voices behind the hygiene hypothesis — the theory that reduced exposure to germs in early childhood may lead to increased allergy risks. He championed breastfeeding and conducted influential research into food allergies, especially milk intolerance.
In 1985, he received the Alan Ross Award from the Canadian Paediatric Society, and in 1998, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest honours.
In his memoir Africa Calling: A Medical Missionary in Kenya and Africa, Dr Gerrard fondly recalled his time at The Downs:
“Days at The Downs started with a quick dip in a bath of cold water, icy cold in the wintertime…”
Far from dampening his spirits, he later added:
“We felt it was good to be alive and better too to be at a school like ours. We felt like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn rolled into one.”
Thankfully, our boarders no longer start their mornings this way — but the sense of joy, freedom, and belonging he described still resonates in our school today.
We are incredibly proud to count Dr Gerrard among our alumni and extend our sincere thanks to Jon and Naomi for sharing his remarkable story with us.
