Professor William Yule 1940–2023

William Yule, Emeritus Professor of Applied Child Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College, University of London, died unexpectedly but peacefully at home on 5 November 2023. He was one of the most influential clinical child psychologists of his generation, and his loss will be keenly felt. 

Bill was born and raised in Aberdeen, the son of a licensed grocer and a mental health nurse. He was educated at the University of Aberdeen, initially studying maths but later switching to psychology. After graduating in 1962, he moved to London to complete his clinical training at the then Institute of Psychiatry. He spent several years as a researcher with Professor Jack Tizard at the Institute of Education of London University, before re-joining the Institute of Psychiatry as a lecturer in 1969.

He remained at the Institute for rest of his professional life and was appointed Professor of Applied Child Psychology in 1987. Having been among the first cohorts to graduate from the then new 13-month London University Academic Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology (Section D - Abnormal), in the early 1960s, Bill was still lecturing to trainees embarking on their three-year clinical psychology doctorate at the IoPPN in 2023.

In a remarkable career that continued well after his official retirement in 2005, Bill mentored generations of clinical psychologists, helped to shape our profession, and made ground-breaking contributions to the field. He had a noteworthy range of research and clinical interests. He was involved in the seminal Isle of Wight epidemiological studies in the late 1960s alongside Professor Tizard and Professor Sir Michael Rutter. He published on classroom behaviour management, childhood reading problems, language development, theory of mind, learning difficulties, behavioural treatments for enuresis, anxiety, phobias, school non-attendance, and conduct disorder, the effect of lead on children's development, fostering and adoption, parenting programmes, behavioural phenotypes and other clinical concerns encountered in his extensive and varied experiences as an NHS clinician.

Bill was best known for his pioneering work in understanding and mitigating the effects of trauma on children. His careful follow up studies of child survivors of shipping disasters showed that children's post-traumatic stress reactions were more common and severe than had hitherto been suspected. He set up the Child Traumatic Stress Clinic at the Maudsley Hospital, where he treated children traumatised by exposure to interpersonal violence, abuse, and accidents. The embodiment of a scientist-practitioner, his clinical work and research always informed each other, and he carried out careful evaluations of individual and group treatments. 

Bill's work took on an increasingly international reach after he was invited by UNICEF in 1993 to advise on setting up community-based psychosocial programmes for war-affected children in Bosnia. After working in Bosnia, Bill set up the Children and War Foundation based in Bergen with Norwegian psychologist Atle Dyregrov. The Foundation aims to create sustainable mental health resources for children affected by war and disaster by training local practitioners to deliver effective evidence-based interventions. Bill ran programmes for child victims of earthquakes in Turkey, Greece, and Iran. He worked for many years providing help for children affected by war in Sri Lanka. He was heavily involved with Ukraine since 2014, training and supervising professionals there to run therapeutic groups with traumatised and bereaved children.  

Bill's work on trauma in children received wide recognition including the M.B. Shapiro award from the BPS in 1993; the lifetime achievement award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in 2005; and an Honorary Fellowship of the BPS in 2006. In 2007, his contributions were recognised by his European psychology colleagues who awarded him an Aristotle Prize. He was also the driving force in setting up the BPS Crisis, Disaster and Trauma Psychology Section in 2013, and was its inaugural chair. In 2017, he chaired the BPS Presidential Taskforce on Refugees and Asylum Seekers. In 2021, under his stewardship, a UK Charity, the Children and War Foundation-UK was established with strong links to its Norwegian counterpart.

Bill was the director of the clinical psychology training course at the Institute of Psychiatry from 1982-1987, head of clinical psychology services at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals Special Health Authority from 1987-1994, consultant clinical psychologist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and advisor at various times to the Metropolitan Police, the British Army, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations.

It would be a mistake to think of Bill as entirely work-focused. Among other things, he was an avid reader and collector and of crime novels and a knowledgeable gardener. He painted with water colours and enjoyed visiting art galleries and special exhibitions. Theatre and musicals – but definitely not opera – were always on the Yule agenda and Bill enjoyed participating in amateur dramatics, among other things.

Bill was instrumental in helping establish clinical child psychology as recognised specialty of the profession in the UK. He mentored and supported several generations of colleagues and students with wisdom and good humour, well into his retirement. He leaves a wonderful legacy for the next generation to take forward.

Bill is survived by his wife Bridget, his daughter Claire and his son Alastair, daughter-in-law Kelly and three grandchildren. 

Prof. Patrick Smith, University of London and Prof. Emeritus Michael Berger, Royal Holloway University of London.