Robert Platt, Baron Platt

Platt's position was that hypertension was a simple disease caused by perhaps just one genetic defect, and he presented evidence of its autosomal dominant inheritance and a bimodal distribution of blood pressures, indicating that hypertensives were a distinct subpopulation in humans.

In contrast, Pickering's viewpoint was that blood pressures varied continuously and unimodally, with hypertensives representing the upper end of the bell curve.

During his lifetime, Platt held the salaried position of head of the Central Manchester Health authority, and he later (1957–1962) became the president of the Royal College of Physicians.

During his presidency he was influential in the writing and publication of the first College report on Smoking and Health, which assembled all the evidence for a causative relationship.

[1] On 16 January 1967 he was created a life peer as Baron Platt, of Grindleford, in the County of Derby.