Harry Angelman (13 August 1915 – 8 August 1996) was a British consultant paediatrician who identified and named

Angelman syndrome Angelman syndrome (AS) is a genetic disorder that affects approximately 1 in 15,000 individuals. AS impairs the function of the nervous system, producing symptoms, such as severe intellectual disability, developmental disability, limited to no ...

Biography

Angelman was born in

Birkenhead Birkenhead () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic co ...

in 1915. He qualified in Liverpool in 1938. Angelman was an enthusiast for the language and country of Italy. He observed three unrelated children who showed similar symptoms of severe intellectual disablement, lack of speech, motor disorders, and happy demeanours. He was in two minds as to whether he should publish his findings, but he described seeing a painting whose name seemed to characterise the symptoms he had observed. The painting showed a laughing boy with a puppet and was by the Renaissance artist

Giovanni Francesco Caroto Giovanni Francesco Caroto (1480 – 1555 or 1558) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance active mainly in his native city of Verona. He initially apprenticed under Liberale da Verona (1445–1526/1529), a conservative painter infused with ...

. His 1965 paper described what he called "puppet children", inspired by the painting. His paper was not immediately recognised as important, but later discoveries of similar children led to the idea of renaming the condition

. An American Angelman Syndrome Support Group was started in

Waterlooville Waterlooville is a town in the Borough of Havant in Hampshire, England, approximately north northeast of Portsmouth. It is the largest town in the borough. The town had a population of 64,350 in the 2011 Census. It is surrounded by Purbrook, ...

, Hampshire, in 1986. Angelman travelled to talk about his discovery and his work was mentioned as important by U.S. President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

. Angelman died due to a colon tumour.

References

1915 births 1996 deaths People from Birkenhead British paediatricians 20th-century British medical doctors {{UK-med-bio-stub