Obituaries B


Bob Gann


ob Gann (25 April 1953 – 31 July 2025) had the vision, the passion and the collaboration skills to put quality at the heart of health information. He started his career in health librarianship before the rise of the internet, under stood online opportunities and led national


developments in digital health information, whilst always seeing the need for options to ensure that people who needed health services would not be digitally excluded. He provided inspiration for the role librarians can play in the shaping and under- standing of information access.


Colleagues who worked with Bob described him as providing gentle guidance, letting peo- ple flourish whilst sharing the vision to make change happen. Across his career in different


organisations and partnerships, he built teams of skilled, strategic and motivated librarians and information professionals. Bob started his career in Salisbury Infirmary and worked in NHS librarianship roles in the 1980s. He worked with Vicky Clement-Jones on establishing Cancerbackup in 1985 and set up Help for Health in 1992, both charities that shaped access to health information for the public. The skills to produce and to use high-quality health information were core to his professional approach, leading to the creation of the Centre for Health Infor- mation Quality. Bob was invited to be one of the 25 healthcare leaders to sign the 1997 NHS Plan. He shaped the early devel- opment of NHS Direct as Director of New Media (1999-2007), before leading on strategy and partnerships for the NHS Choices


Margaret Wilson M


argaret Wilson MSc, OBE, died on 5th December 2024 at the age of 87 after a long illness. Margaret was educated at the Royal Latin School, the gram- mar school in Buckingham, and joined the Civil Service as a Clerical Officer in 1954 at the Royal Propulsion Establishment (RPE) in Westcott, Buck-


inghamshire. The RPE was an outstation of RAE Farnborough. At the time, Britain had a space programme and rocket motors were tested at Westcott and also on the Isle of Wight. Margaret worked in several posts and realised her vocation whilst working in the library.


After gaining her library qualifications at the North Western Polytechnic in London, Margaret worked in Government libraries and worked in a number of roles at the Ministry of Aviation, Ministry of Technology, Ministry of Fuel and Power, and the Department of Trade and Industry. In the latter post, she lectured on aspects of marketing information to universities, Chambers of Commerce overseas visitors etc. Margaret moved to Croydon in 1978 and took up the post of Senior Librarian at the Property Services (PSA) Library. In her first post here, she was responsible for regional services which entailed travelling throughout the UK to check the information service points were maintained and up to date; in her second post, Margaret was responsible for finance and administration. It was whilst working at PSA that Margaret studied part-time for a MSc at City University which she gained in 1987. With the privatisation of PSA, Margaret left PSA and became Head of Library Services at the Department for Education and Science in 1991 with 25 staff. In the space of five years, she


60 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL


steered the Library through considerable change in its move to smaller premises for the library from Elizabeth House near Waterloo station to the present location of the DfE in Westmin- ster, and through a period of change and uncertainty whilst the Library was subject to market testing of its services (it was the first Government library to undergo this review) and finally the machinery of Government changes when the Department for Edu- cation was merged with the Department for Employment in 1995. When Margaret took up her post at the DES in 1991, the Department was already using internal email, years before the development of the internet; Margaret made a point of always speaking to all her staff every morning before checking her email. Margaret will be remembered as an excellent team manager as well as a strategist.


Margaret was a firm advocate for librarianship and the Library Association. She was a firm believer in succession planning and was behind the success of people’s careers more than they realise. Margaret took an active role in professional networks such as the Committee of Departmental Librarians and the Circle of State Librarians and encouraged her staff to do so as well. Following retirement in 1997, Margaret was awarded the OBE in the New Years Honours’ list in 1998 for services to Government. During retirement, Margaret continued to keep in touch with former staff and was an active member of the University of the Third Age in Croydon, where she gave talks and researched subjects of historical interest and volunteered at the Croydon ARC.


Jane Kennedy, MA, MCLIP, FIRMS Winter 2025


website (2007-2013). He continued to work in roles relating to widening digital participation, including acting as a digital health specialist advisor for the Care Quality Commission (2016-2019) and for Citizens Online (2019-2020). In presentations for the Medical, Health and Welfare Libraries Group (later the Health Libraries Group), Bob emphasised the im- portance of collaboration across different parts of the libraries sec- tor. His contributions to health librarianship were recognised in 2002 when he received the Cyril Barnard Award. Bob understood the importance of publishing work in order to spread ideas. He worked as a medical editor for the British Medical Journal in the early 1990s and continued to publish in high-impact journals both within and outside the profession. His works are widely cited. Away from work, Bob volunteered for the Salisbury Museum and the River Bourne Community Farm, as well as being a Dipex Trustee. He loved walking, music, football, family – and he could talk to anybody about anything. In closing, Sue Lacey Bryant, CILIP President, speaks for many: “When I first met Bob in the 1980s, he was operating the Help for Health Information Service out a tiny office in Southampton, yet it was clear that he was a man of vision with big ideas for improving the provision of healthcare information. Bob was one of those remarkable people who truly make a difference. Witty, approachable, effective, Bob Gann’s impact on the lives of patients and the public by improving the provision of healthcare informa- tion has been immense. He leaves a truly remarkable legacy.”


Ruth Carlyle


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