Stanley Miles Partridge, 2 August 1913 - 26 April 1992

The explosion of interest in the connective-tissue field over the past decade is based on the early intellectual contributions of just a few pioneering investigators. Miles Partridge was one of those few. He will be best remembered for the characterization of elastin from a histological entity to a protein in its own right, and for demonstrating how its unusual structure results in a rubber-like elasticity. He also identified the glycoprotein in aortic elastin that was later shown to exist as microfibrils and to be involved in directing the elastin fibre during development. He made a major contribution to the elucidation of the basic structure of the glycosaminoglycans by his initial representation of chondroitin sulphate as a bottle-brush structure consisting of a protein core and numerous side chains of polysaccharides. He chose these topics firstly because very little was known about these structures and they were considered by his contemporaries to be insoluble problems, and secondly because it was not in his nature just to extend or confirm other people’s work. Miles Partridge clearly possessed a vision of connective tissue well ahead of his time, and his legacy has been to provide openings into areas previously thought to be intractable. He can therefore rightly be considered one of the fathers of connective-tissue biochemistry.