Distinguished surgeon Martin Birnstingl cast doubt on Dr David Kelly’s suicide

Published: 15th April, 2011
by PETER GRUNER

A MEMORIAL event was held at Barts on Tuesday for the distinguished hospital surgeon who believed that British government arms expert David Kelly did not commit suicide but was probably assassinated.

Martin Birnstingl, a vascular surgeon and campaigner for human rights from Hampstead – who died in January aged 83 – employed his medical expertise on many occasions to challenge the official line.

In 2004, he was one of the group of physicians who argued against Lord Hutton’s view that Dr Kelly, under pressure to find chemical weapons before the invasion of Iraq, killed himself.

Mr Birnstingl and his colleagues maintained that it was “highly improbable” that the primary cause of death was haemorrhage from transection of a single artery, as stated in the Hutton Report.

In 2010, the incoming coalition government made the proceedings public, although the verdict remained unchanged.

The “Kelly gang” – made up initially of five medical specialists – had been formed following a letter in the Morning Star newspaper by retired orthopaedic and trauma surgeon David Halpin.

Mr Halpin was among the first to cast doubt on the official idea that arms inspector Kelly had taken his own life in countryside near his home.

The group’s case was later presented to the Attorney General by Islington-based human rights lawyers Leigh Day.

Speaking this week, Mr Halpin said: “Martin’s speciality knowledge of blood vessels reinforced the view that a man of Kelly’s scientific knowledge would not have attempted to end his life with pills and a penknife. Martin, unlike so many other doctors in this country, was prepared to put his head above the parapet over the Kelly death. It would be a fitting lasting tribute if the Attorney General would allow a new inquest so that we can finally know the truth.”

Birstingl was also an active member of Physicians for Human Rights Israel. In 2007, he was a co-signatory of a letter in The Lancet reporting allegations that Israeli doctors had colluded in the torture of prisoners in Gaza, and criticising the Israeli Medical Association for not speaking out on the issue.

Birnstingl was born on June 17, 1924. His father was a master printer, his mother a painter. They were Fabian socialists who had founded the Favil Press, an Arts and Crafts publisher of the 1930s, and encouraged their children to develop broad cultural interests.

After leaving school, he studied at Barts Hospital Medical College. Following wartime service in the Royal Army Medical Corps in East Africa and Mauritius, he returned to Barts.

He was interested in all the arts and was a fine flautist who played in many amateur orchestras. 

Mr Birnstingl’s partner of 50 years, architect Renate Prince, said: “Martin was committed to the NHS and was horrified when the relentless privatisation began and couldn’t understand why there was so little opposition.”

He is also survived by one sister and a brother.