The Times تكتب عن د.عبدالحليم محمد...

Quote: Dr Abdel Halim Mohammed Abdel Halim: Sudanese doctor undefined Dr Abdel Halim Mohammed Abdel Halim was a Sudanese doctor who rose to occupy senior health service roles in the African state and became a grandee of his country’s footballing and Olympic administration. Dr Halim, as he was known to his students, colleagues and friends, was born in 1910, in Omdurman, the native capital of Sudan, into a distinguished family of religious scholars, writers, journalists, politicians, educationists, lawyers, medical men and sportsmen. He qualified as a medical doctor from Kitchener School of Medicine in Khartoum, the top of his class and the winner of several medical prizes. Soon after his medical internship he was appointed to take part in training medical students and house officers. In 1948 he became the first Sudanese to obtain membership of the Royal College of Physicians in London, and later became the first Sudanese Fellow. He was the first Sudanese to rise to hold the position of senior physician in what was called the Sudan Medical Service during British rule and at independence he went on to hold the #####alent position in the Ministry of Health. He trained medical students, house officers and medical registrars who later became the mainstay of the Sudan medical service. He developed medical services and led the development of the new teaching hospital in Khartoum. Yet he had many other interests as well. He was Mayor of Khartoum, president of the Sudanese Football Association, founder member and president of the African Football Association and, later, president of the Sudanese Olympic Committee. He travelled the world in his capacity as head of the medical committee of FIFA and he also served on the International Olympic Committee. He was also Chancellor of Khartoum University and the first president of the Sudanese Medical Association, an #####alent of the British Medical Association. Also known as a man of letters, in the 1930s Halim was a leading member of the Hashmab and Dawn reading group. Together with similar reading groups it laid foundations for the Sudanese Graduates Congress, which itself heralded the creation of the main political parties that led the movement for independence from British rule and ruled the country during the brief periods of democratic rule since independence in 1956. Halim was one of the confidants and political advisers of Al-Sayed Abdel-Rahman Elmahdi, the son of the Mahdi and guardian of the Omma Political Party. After the overthrow of the first military dictatorship of General Abboud in 1964, he became one of the members of the Sudan Presidential Council, which presided over the interim coalition Government that paved the way for general elections. Also in the 1930s he took a leading part in the literary movement of the time, co-authoring a book entitled Death of a Life with his brother-in- law, Mohamed Ahmed Mahjoub, who later became Prime Minister of Sudan. Halim was elitist in his tastes but as comfortable mixing with young footballers as erudite literary types, sophisticated politicians and high-powered physicians. Friends thought of him as a good, liberal and libertarian Muslim. An anglophile, he rarely missed his annual visit to England to meet his British medical and other friends as well as his Sudanese colleagues and students. His medical ward rounds were a great attraction, as rigorous medical teaching was intermingled with high-flown prose, native proverbs and wisecracks as well as verses from the Koran. He could be eloquent and light-hearted but also incisive and sarcastic with those who failed to live up to his high medical standards. His students and graduate trainees rose to be his colleagues and loyal friends, and he kept a fatherly eye on their progress. His wife predeceased him. He is survived by five sons and two daughters. Dr Abdel Halim Mohammed Abdel Halim, physician, was born on April 10, 1910. He died on April 16, 2009, aged 99