JAMES STEEL SCOTT was intrigued by the immunological relationships between the foetus and its parents, and also the mysteries of the placenta. He pursued these fields for nearly half a century. He is worthy of the accolade “father of clinical reproductive immunology”.

Scott came from an eminent Glaswegian medical family, and was brought up in the work ethos of Scottish Presbyterianism. He was a man of high principles, which sometimes made him appear perverse; loyal and supportive to his staff and friends; stimulating, if occasionally obtuse; with a quirky sense of humour which he retained to the end. Above all, he combined the rare attributes of compassionate clinician and seminal researcher.

Scott received his early obstetric and gynaecological training in Dublin, London and Birmingham before developing a more academic bias in Liverpool as a lecturer and senior lecturer under Sir Norman Jeffcoate. Jeffcoate imbued in his staff a rigorous self-discipline, with research founded on sound clinical experience. Papers were subjected to rigorous analysis and criticism.

All this came naturally to Scott as he embarked on elucidating various problems of the day, including the formation of the amniotic fluid which bathes the foetus in utero and the relationship of lack of fluid with absence of foetal kidneys. His studies on placental anomalies led to an MD with commendation.

He developed a special interest in reproductive immunology, which stemmed from an earlier close relationship with the Department of Medicine in Liverpool, where Sir Cyril Clarke and his team were unravelling the cause of maternal immunisation to the Rhesus factor and the means to prevent it, thereby avoiding jaundice and anaemia which would result in death or handicap of the newborn.

Scott was appointed to the chair of obstetrics and gynaecology in Leeds in 1961, and he soon built up a strong clinical unit. The clinic continued to be the primary stimulus for his research but he attracted colleagues of the highest calibre to collaborate in the laboratory. He explored many aspects of the immunology of pregnancy, especially the enigma of the ability of the mother to accept a graft (the foetus) of partially foreign tissue.

He continued to refine the clinical management of mothers at risk of Rhesus immunisation as well as expanding his interests in the role of immunological factors in infertility, recurrent abortion, congenital heart block, pre-eclampsia (hypertension in pregnancy) and especially the potential contribution of paternal immunogenetic factors.

This was a newly developing field in which he was a pioneer. As early as 1976, in collaboration with Warren Jones, he published The Immunology of Human Reproduction which was the first comprehensive review of the subject written for clinicians. At the end of his career he embodied many of the contributions from his team in another book, Pregnancy, Autoimmunity and Connective Tissue Disorders.

Although he had a dislike of committees, he was a good committee man and chairman who was able to stay focused. In the University of Liverpool he became Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. He served on the Committee on Safety of Medicines and chaired the Department of Health working party on the management of ovarian cancer. He was also active in the Royal College of Obstetricians as a member of the council and of various committees. The college appointed him as Sims Black Visiting Professor in 1979, resulting in an extensive college mission and lecture tour in the Far East. His enthusiastic membership of the Gynaecological Visiting Society provided the opportunity to combine incisive comment in discussion with conviviality. When he was responsible for arranging meetings one could be assured that they would be conducted with aplomb and leavened with good food and good wine.

In retirement Scott pursued life to the full. His inquiring mind led him to research the life of Alister MacKenzie, the renowned designer of golf courses, and he was joint author of MacKenzie’s biography. Other pursuits, many of which he shared and enjoyed with his friends, included opera at Glyndebourne and the Wexford Festival. He also enjoyed walking in Alsace (in a kilt, which brought forth admiring glances from the Alsatians) and skiing, which he continued into his eighties.

Above all, he was happy when sailing his boat from Achiltibuie.

He leaves his wife, Olive, a pioneering paediatric cardiologist, and two sons.

Professor James Scott, obstetrician and immunologist, was born on April 18, 1924. He died on September 17, 2006, aged 82.