Anton Sebastianpillai

{{Short description|British author and consultant geriatrician (1945–2020)}}

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Anton Sebastianpillai FRCP (23 January 1945 – 4 April 2020), was a British historian, author (writing as Anton Sebastian) and consultant geriatrician, of Sri Lankan Tamil origin.{{cite web |title=Tributes for British Tamil Doctor On the Frontline Who Dies from Coronavirus |url=https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/tributes-british-tamil-doctor-frontline-who-dies-coronavirus |publisher=Tamil Guardian |access-date=8 April 2020}}

Biography

He had his primary and secondary education at St Sylvester's College, Kandy and trained at Peradeniya Medical School, in Sri Lanka, qualifying in 1967.{{cite web |title=Doctor in his 70s dies at London hospital |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-52204509 |work=BBC News |access-date=8 April 2020 |date=7 April 2020}}

He gave talks to the Foreign Correspondents' Club, New Delhi, India, and gave the 'Millennium Oration' of the Sri Lanka Medical Association of North America.{{cite news |title=Bringing Out the Very Essence of This Country |url=http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120226/Plus/plus_02.html |work=The Sunday Times |access-date=8 April 2020 |date=26 February 2012}}

He died on 4 April 2020, at Kingston Hospital, London, after contracting COVID-19 while working there.{{cite news |last1=Jenkinson |first1=Orlando |title=Tributes for Kingston Doctor Lost to Coronavirus |url=https://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/18366460.tributes-kingston-doctor-lost-coronavirus/ |access-date=8 April 2020 |work=Sutton & Croydon Guardian }} He had been admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit on 31 March and was aged 75.{{cite web |title=A Sri Lankan Born Doctor Succumbed To COVID-19 In London |url=http://www.asiantribune.com/node/93744 |publisher=Asian Tribune |access-date=9 April 2020}}

He was a bibliophile, with a collection of rare books on Sri Lanka and on medical history.{{cite journal |last1=Erlen |first1=Jonathon |title=A Dictionary of the History of Medicine (review) |journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences |date=1 April 2001 |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=182–183 |doi=10.1093/jhmas/56.2.182 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/15240 |issn=1468-4373|url-access=subscription }}

Works

As Anton Sebastian he wrote a number of reference works:

{{cite book |first1=Anton |last1=Sebastian |author-mask1=0 |title=A Dictionary of the History of Medicine |date=1999 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1850700210 }}{{cite journal |last1=Murray |first1=Jock |title=Book Reviews: A Dictionary of the History of Medicine |date=October 1999 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=374–376 |doi=10.3138/cbmh.16.2.374|doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Geddes |first1=Jennian F |title=A Dictionary of the History of Medicine (reviewed) |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |date=November 1999 |volume=92 |issue=11 |pages=604–605 |doi=10.1177/014107689909201124 |pmc=1297448}}{{cite journal |last1=Bowers Jr |first1=George N |title=A Dictionary of the History of Medicine |journal=Clinical Chemistry |date=1 March 2001 |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=611–612 |doi=10.1093/clinchem/47.3.611b|doi-access=free }}
{{cite book |first1=Anton |last1=Sebastian |author-mask1=0 |title=Dates in Medicine |date=2000 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1850700951 }}
{{cite book |first1=Anton |last1=Sebastian |author-mask1=0 |title=A Dictionary of the History of Science |date=2001 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1850704188}}{{cite journal |last1=Crellin |first1=J.K |title=A Dictionary of the History of Science |journal=Canadian Bulletin of Medical History |date=October 2002 |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=513–514 |doi=10.3138/cbmh.19.2.513|doi-access=free }}
{{cite book |first1=Anton |last1=Sebastian |author-mask1=0 |title=A Complete Illustrated History of Sri Lanka |date=2014 |publisher=Vijitha Yapa Publications |location=Sri Lanka |edition=2nd |isbn=978-9556651492}}

His Dictionary of the History of Medicine won a British Medical Association Medical Book Award.