Colin Murray Parkes obituary

Psychiatrist whose insights into bereavement were shaped by events such as the Aberfan disaster, the Rwanda genocide and 9/11

The much-quoted phrase Grief is the price we pay for love" reached a global audience in 2001 when Queen Elizabeth II used it in her message of condolence to those affected by the 9/11 attacks in the US.

But it was the psychiatrist Colin Murray Parkes, who has died aged 95, who first came up with the words that have given solace to so many. In his 1972 book Bereavement: Studies of Grief in Adult Life, he wrote: The pain of grief is just as much a part of life as the joy of love; it is, perhaps, the price we pay for love."