Lord Walton of Detchant: There and Back Again

∗Correspondence to: Patrick F. Chinnery, Director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University & Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK. Tel.: +44 191 8663; E-mail: patrick.chinnery@ncl.ac.uk. and present – to celebrate the remarkable and on-going contribution made by Lord Walton of Detchant to the field of neuromuscular disorders, from his early work as a junior researcher in Newcastle upon Tyne over 50 years ago, through to his pivotal role in the UK Parliament. The following articles describe the recent ground breaking scientific discoveries in the field of neuromuscular diseases that were presented at the International Centre for Life less than 10 miles from Rowlands Gill, the place where John Nicholas Walton was born in 1922. At the time, his father was a headmaster of