After education at Bradford Grammar School, he gained an Open Scholarship in 1953 to The Queen's College, Oxford.
He gained a BA degree in Physiology and began clinical studies at The (now Royal) London Hospital in 1957 and qualified in medicine at University of Oxford, BM BCH in 1959.
[4] He was appointed as the first Professor of Haematology at the Royal Free Hospital and Medical School in London University in 1973 where he was to spend the rest of his career.
In conjunction with George Janossy and Mel Greaves, newly discovered monoclonal antibodies were used to classify and diagnose leukaemias and lymphomas.
His other research concerned removal of iron from multiple transfused patients with thalassaemia major and other refractory anaemias.
[5] In 1976, Richard Propper and David Nathan suggested the use of subcutaneous desferrioxamine to prevent death from iron overload in these diseases.
He has trained in research and in clinical and laboratory haematology, many haematologists who have established their own Academic Departments in the UK, and in many countries worldwide including, Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Lebanon, New Zealand, Pakistan, Poland and USA.
[10][11] In 2019, he received the British Society for Haematology Lifetime Achievement Award[12] and an Honorary DSc (Med) from University College, London.
[13] He has been visiting professor in Melbourne, Toronto, Rawalpindi, Chandigarh, South Africa, and advised the Ministries of Health in Kuwait, Cyprus and Hong Kong on their haematology services.
[18] He has co-authored Color Atlas of Clinical Haematology (awarded best book in internal medicine in 2010 by the British Medical Association), now in its fifth edition.
[24] He was a member of the Systems Board of the MRC (1983–1987) and of the Council of the Royal College of Pathologists (1988–1990) and Chairman of Haematological Malignancies Subcommittee (1987–1991).
He was a member of the Government Working Party, (COMA) concerning fortification of the UK diet with folic acid.