Michael was a loving husband to Mary, father to Helen and Mark, and grandfather to Charlie and Frankie.

Born in Stepney within the sound of Bow Bells, he was a cockney born to a family of east end publicans. A war child, he was evacuated to Somerset and then went to school at Kingston Grammar. Leaving there to work as a scientist in various roles that included a pathology lab in Bournemouth hospital where he met and married Mary. After a stint of national service in the army he moved with his now young family to a hospital in Hertfordshire where he set up a new pathology lab. This was to be fateful because it was here that he met Professor Lionel Penrose and with whom he started his career in the new scientific field of genetics. It was their pioneering research into Downes Syndrome that led to the winning of the Kennedy Prize awarded by Jackie Kennedy herself, and this in turn led to the establishment of the Kennedy Galton Centre which Michael grew to become a regional clinical centre that continues to flourish today, 30 years after his retirement. Alongside this, he undertook years of parttime study for a series of qualifications culminating in a PhD. As the Director of the centre he installed one of the first electron microscopes, taught himself coding, and co-founded the Association of Clinical Cytogeneticists. A reluctant but evidently talented administrator, Michael always considered himself primarily a clinical scientist with the care of his patients at the heart of his motivation. We, his family, still meet those that know of his work or parents that have benefited from it.

And yet as his family, knew a different person. To us he was the funny man that delighted in the silliness of the Goons or Monty Python. We remember him crying with laughter at Last of the Summer Wine or The Goodies. A physically strong man he used to cycle from London to Bournemouth to see Mary on his beloved Claude Butler bicycle. Hill walking was his passion and he particularly loved the Lake District. As a family we spent some of our happiest times by lakes and mountains. A talented amateur painter he loved the arts. He used to take his lunchbreaks in the Tate when barracked at Millbank, and particularly favoured the works of EE Cummings and John Piper. Mary and he frequented the galleries of London and they always seemed to bring back a painting from their travels. As an avid reader he introduced his children to authors such as Tolkien, Lewis and Peake. And music was his constant companion. Classical and jazz mainly, but he was always interested in the new too, struggling with John Peel so he could understand better Mark's burgeoning taste as a teenager, and over the years Mary and Michael always looked forward to their annual trips to The Proms. His love of science and of music continues with his grandchildren now. 

So we say farewell to a hardworking, talented man who loved and cared for his family. Warm, cultured and driven by strong values. We love him still and will miss him greatly.