When Philip Graham takes up the Chair of the Association next June, it will be his second term in an office he originally held in 1982. Although he would modestly deny it, he is not only one of the UK's leading child and adolescent psychiatrists, but also widely respected internationally. Outside this country his reputation is particularly strong in Europe where he was President of the European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from 1987 to 1991. His appointment to the Foundation Chair of Child Psychiatry at the Institute of Child Health in 1975 marked the establishment of the second such chair in the UK. The esteem in which he was held there led to his appointment as Dean of the Institute from 1985 to 1990. On retirement in 1994 he was elected to the Chair of the National Children's Bureau, reflecting his broad perspective on the welfare of children.