John Orme died on the 7 January 2002 at the age of 81. A Londoner, he was educated at Highgate School and then went to St Bartholomew's Hospital where he qualified in 1944. Following a very short experience as a casualty officer, he entered the RNVR and spent most of the next 2 years in the Far East. After leaving the Royal Navy, John worked as a general practitioner before becoming medical officer in Bristol mental hospitals, gaining the DPM and MA in Child Psychology during his appointment. John went to Northampton as a senior registrar and subsequently became Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist in the West Riding and Sheffield in 1956. His responsibilities gradually became concentrated in Barnsley, where he was instrumental in establishing the Pinder Oaks Child Psychiatric Centre. John was elected FRCPsych in 1974 and retired in 1981.

John was always much respected by his colleagues and never shunned work in the interest of his patients and their families. He was reserved both in his manner and towards the several novel systems that arose and declined over a quarter of a century. John had the unfashionable but therapeutic knack of helping families to believe that they had achieved successful change by their own efforts.

John is survived by his wife Diana and their two children.