James Mourilyan Tanner | |
---|---|
Born |
Camberley, Surrey, United Kingdom |
August 1, 1920
Died | August 11, 2010 | (aged 90)
Cause of death | stroke and prostate cancer |
Occupation | pediatric endocrinologist |
Known for | Tanner Staging |
Children | Helen Phillips |
James Mourilyan Tanner (1 August 1920 – 11 August 2010) was a British pediatric endocrinologist who was best known for his development of the Tanner scale, which measures the stages of sexual development during puberty. He was a professor emeritus of the Institute of Child Health at the University of London.
Tanner was born on 1 August 1920 in Camberley, Surrey, United Kingdom and was educated at Marlborough College and University College of the South West of England. His family travelled widely while he was a youth because his father, a soldier in the British Army, was stationed in various locations. Tanner was a top-ranked hurdler who might well have participated in the 1940 Summer Olympics which were to be held in London, but were cancelled after the outbreak of World War II. He decided to become a doctor and not follow his father into the military after his brother was killed early in the war. He attended St Mary's Hospital, London, under a scholarship in which he instructed fellow students in physical education. He went to the United States to complete his medical studies as part of a group of British students funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. He met his first wife, fellow physician Bernice Alture, while at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and performed his internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital.