Patrick Wall (1925–2001) was an expert on pain, its mechanism, human effects and treatment. He was Professor of Anatomy at University College London, 1967–1990, one of many notable people to have occupied that post; Director of the Cerebral Functions Research Group; and first editor of the journal 'Pain'. In the 1960s he and Ronald Melzack put forward the gate control theory of pain, to explain the perception of pain. The theory, supported by evidence, maintained that the perception of pain by the brain was to some extent independent of the physical damage to the affected part. Wall was a creative thinker, a cheerful anarchist, and an engaging controversialist: he claimed to believe that the best ideas were those that had the greatest number of opponents.