Commenting on an obituary of Shaikh Zayed ran by Times of London on November 4, Williams said that although the article spoke warmly of how Shaikh Zayed had ensured for his people great benefits from the oil wealth of his country, it made no mention of his equally generous, though less known, philanthropic work and particularly of his support for medical research.

Speaking about his meeting with Shaikh Zayed in 1977 to whom he was introduced by the late Sir Geoffrey Arthur, the political resident for the trucial states at the time of independence, Williams said they talked of the problems of liver disease in the Gulf.

"I was also able to explain something of the research that we were doing in my unit at King’s College Hospital into liver disorders, as well as of my desire and plans to increase the laboratory space and facilities that I had there," recalled Professor Williams in his remarks which appeared in Times yesterday.

A few weeks later, he said, he received a call from the embassy of the UAE in London. There, he added, he received from Mahdi Al Tajir, the ambassador at that time, a cheque for the first installment of a donation of £750,000 towards the new building.

Professor Williams noted that the centre was also of great benefit to

other units, including the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.