PROFESSOR JOHN B SCHOFIELD MB BS, FRCPath
ASSISTANT MASTER
John was installed as the 441st Master on 6th October 2922. He joined the Worshipful Company Tylers and Bricklayers at the invitation of Dr George Bird, becoming a Liveryman in 2008 and joining the Court in 2015. John is a medical doctor by profession having qualified at St George’s University of London in 1981. For the last 30 years has been a Consultant Histopathologist, diagnosing malignant disease by microscopic and molecular analysis of tissue samples. After training at the Hammersmith and the Royal Marsden Hospitals in London, he helped develop a new oncology centre in Maidstone, Kent, which provides cancer services to nearly 2 million people in the south east of England.
John’s particular medical diagnostic and research interests are the pathology of lymphoma, leukaemia and colon cancer. Having published nearly 100 original scientific papers in medical journals and written 6 book chapters, in 2014 he became visiting Professor of Pathology at the University of Kent. He is active in teaching the next generation of our doctors, encouraging research and innovation in pathology, and for the last seven years has been a trustee of the charity Bowel Cancer UK raising awareness of this common but dangerous disease.
John has an interest in medical politics and leadership, having served as deputy medical director for 5 years and then President of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association for three years. He is married to Helen, a pharmaceutical physician and virologist with expertise in drug development, with two daughters – Emma, a recently qualified dentist and Lucy, a civil servant, all now living in South London.
His hobbies include the study of art, architecture and antiques, and he is a member of several related specialist societies including the Georgian group, Furniture History Society and the Silver Society. In 2018, he published a short report on an important silver chalice found in a Suffolk collection, and he and Helen have formed a small but interesting collection of 18th and 19th century silver. Together, he and Helen enjoy travelling in the UK and abroad, and enjoy visiting the Pembrokeshire coast which provides a safe haven away from the bustle of the City.
John served as chairman of the Reform Club for two years. He also enjoys the academic pleasures of the nearby Athenaeum club as well as the gastronomic pleasures of a newly formed wine club, 67 Pall Mall.
In the Company, John has chaired the Communications committee and a subgroup of the “Strategic Review 2020”. He currently serves on the Finance, Craft, Communications, Treasures and Nominations committees, and he organised the stocktake of the Company’s treasures in April 2021.
John is working with the new Master and others to raise funds to support a further presentee at Christ’s Hospital. He would like to encourage everyone to contribute generously, as well as the Company’s other charitable funds. After nearly two years of Company life seriously affected by Covid 19, he is looking forward to an exciting year where (we hope!) normal service will resume.