EDITORIAL
In
January 1992 in anticipation of the Society's centenary, it was agreed that the
Society should start a Newsletter.
Since
that time the content of the Newsletter has been gathered and prepared by myself
and the publication, editing and printing by Barrie Davies. We both agree that
it has been an exciting and very fulfilling challenge which we both have enjoyed
very much.
On
the whole we feel it has been a very successful enterprise and is now very much
part of the Society's scene. Furthermore many members tell me how much they look
forward to receiving the next edition - especially since Jan Adams started her
trips abroad.
I have now passed a certain birthday and am no longer in the close contact with
the medical scene quite as formerly; and the publisher, Barrie Davies, has also
gone out of active clinical general practice and spends a lot of his time at
35,000 feet in aero medical work.
And
so the Editor feels it is time he gave up his position as editor of the
Newsletter and
Barrie
also feels that it won't be too long before he wishes to relinquish his task as
he will be spending much more time in his other home in
Florida. We
intend to carry on producing this Newsletter for the next year or so, but feel
it is important that we get another team in post to carry on from us. Not only
to continue with the same job, but to bring a fresh view and invigorate the
Newsletter which, without Jan Adams’ contributions, would be getting pretty
stale by now.
I
look forward to hearing names before too long.
Graeme
Wilcox
Greetings
Members may recall Phyllis Oxborrow who worked at the Health Centre,
Kidderminster for many years and who subsequently went to
Tanzania
.
She and her husband recently returned to
Kidderminster
for a time (she has family in the town). Phyllis did a 'catch up’ 6 months
Registrar job, but has now decided to return to
Tanzania
.
I
enclose an extract from some recent correspondence.
I
did my 6 month G.P. Registrar post with Julian Davey, at Winyates,
Redditch
. It was a good trainee post, and I was able to do a few locums for them
afterwards.
Now, however, we are starting our preparations for our return to
East Africa
. We are expecting to go back to
Tanzania
for just a few months and then move on to a new post in
Kenya
.
No doubt I shall find some use for my medical skills there, but I don't think
much of my medical work will resemble present-day
U.K.
General Practice. I don't know how you all keep going in the present political
climate and with patients' expectations as they are now.
Greetings to members of the society and any other 'old' friends and
acquaintances.
Phyllis
Chesworth (Oxborrow)
click
here to go to the top of the page
Musical
Interlude
As
part of Martin Lewis's year as president he organised a Society outing to the
Centenary concert of the Kidderminster Choral Society of which he is a member.
The
week of music making to celebrate the centenary of Kidderminster Choral Society
ended with a splendid concert in the town hall on the 19th of June. The Choral
Society was joined by Theodor Storms Choir from Husum which had celebrated it's
150th anniversary a few years ago.
The
evening began with a short speech by Charles Talbot who outlined the history of
the society and this was followed by presentations by each choir tomark the
occasion. Geoffrey Weaver, the conductor, then explained to the audience that
the Mozart Requiem was in fact performed at the first concert in 1899 and
history was repeating itself a hundred years later.
The
concert began with Andrew Carter's 'Benidicite'. This was a delightful piece
depicting various animals, different types of weather, spirits and souls and
Grannies and Grand dads to name only a few. The choirs were joined by the Wyre
Forest Young Voices, a group of talented teenagers, who sang two of the verses.
The
first half of the concert concluded with two parts of William Sterndale
Bennett's May Queen which was also performed at the Society's very first
concert. Geoffrey Weaver mentioned that the music was very 'Sullivan" in
character. Stemdale Bennett actually taught Arthur Sullivan when in his early
days as a student.
The
second half of the concert was devoted to Mozart's Requiem. This wonderful piece
of music was beautifully performed by choirs and orchestra alike and rounded off
a memorable evening. The orchestra, The Elgar Sinfonia, was superb, it's
musicians being young professionals some of whom play for the CBSO, and the four
vocal soloists matched their excellence.
Graeme Wilcox
click
here to go to the top of the page
RETIRING
PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS
I
must confess that when I was first invited to become President of the Society
for the past year, I had some trepidation about accepting the honour. However, I
am now happy to reassure any future candidates for this position that the
support of the Events Committee, and particularly of our Social Secretary, David
Malcomson, has made the experience a very pleasant one indeed for Maureen and
myself. I have certainly come to appreciate how much we owe to David and Liz,
who have played such a crucial role in enabling the Society to continue to
flourish over recent years.
During
my year in office, I was greatly encouraged by the enthusiasm of all those who
supported our initial event at Church Stretton and my thanks are particularly
due to Richard Horton, who led the main walking party up onto Long Mynd, and to
the management of the Long Mynd Hotel, who looked after us so well when we
adjourned there for lunch. It was particularly gratifying to see so many
youngsters taking part and I hope that it may be possible to devise some similar
family-centred activities in future years.
The
other events this year have been of a slightly more esoteric nature to tempt the
more discerning members of our Society. The Dawn Chorus Walk in
Wyre
Forest
, organised by David, was certainly a delight for me and was followed by an
excellent breakfast at the Visitors Centre. The sound of a song thrush singing
from the top of a large oak tree, sadly a relatively rare experience in recent
years, will stay in my memory for a long time to come as will the song and
flight of a tree pipit, so expertly highlighted by Neville Wilde, our
ornithologist guide for the morning.
I
would also like to thank all those who supported the Kidderminster Choral
Society in their centenary concert. Modesty forbids me to comment on the quality
of the singing, but the wine in the interval, kindly organised by Wendy
Kingston, certainly went down well.
I
was delighted that we were able to organise another cricket match this year as a
prelude to the invitation to Tim Curtis to address our annual dinner.
Our team, skilfully captained by Tony Carter, had accepted a challenge from the
Stourbridge Medical Society. Having rather pathetically pulled a muscle the
first time I ran for a ball in the field, my only real contribution to the game
was, as umpire, to turn down what was, of course, a totally unjustified appeal
for leg before wicket in the final over. As a result, we won the match with the
very last ball of the game and then went off to The Talbot in Chaddesley Corbett
to celebrate!
It
was good to be able to return to Spring Grove House for the Annual Dinner this
year. The Organisation of the event by David Malcomson was again faultless and
the meal and ambience appeared to give great pleasure to all those who attended.
I think we all enjoyed the after dinner talk by Tim Curtis and some of his
self-deprecating anecdotes were very amusing indeed. Thanks to Tim's very modest
fee requirement, the event should also have made a small profit, which I hope we
will be able to donate to the Cancer Resource Centre Trust Fund.
My
year as President has definitely brought home to me the important role that the
Society plays in fostering the best possible relationship between the various
strands of medical practice within this community. Unfortunately, there is no
doubt that the changing pattern of hospital services over the next few years
will make the unity of our medical community much more difficult to sustain.
However, I hope and believe that the current strength of the Society can be
preserved if we all redouble our efforts to support Tim Wadsworth and all future
Presidents in this very worthwhile endeavour.
Martin
Lewis
click
here to go to the top of the page
The
Annual Dinner of the Kidderminster Medical Society was held at Spring Grove
House on Friday, September 17th (not Saturday18th!). Over ninety members,
partners and guests enjoyed an excellent meal, enlivened by the conversation of
friends and colleagues.
Dr.
Martin Lewis welcomed everyone, spoke of his honour at being elected President
and thanked David
and Liz Malcolmson and their committee for all their hard work
in in organising the event. He went on to thank Dr. Richard Taylor and his
committee for their unstinting efforts in trying to save the hospital and
welcomed the concessions they had won. Thanks were also offered to those who
made both the walks on Long Mynd and in
Wyre
Forest
such a success.
Basking
in the glory of
Kidderminster
's victory over Stourbridge Medical Society by one run, Dr. Lewis welcomed the
evening's guest speaker, Tim Curtis. Sometime Captain and Vice-Captain of
Worcestershire County Cricket Club, Tim represented
England
twice against the West Indies and three times against
Australia
. However he still managed to fall victim to the bowling skills of Dr. Campion
when the latter bowled him out during a local match.
Tim
opened in a self-deprecating vein; he described himself variously as a
"pipe and slippers" batsman and "cricket's answer to a Sunday
driver". To the amusement of the assembled company, he said that he was
sponsored by Volvo Cars as they shared similar scores of 0 - 60 in three days.
Moving on to fellow Worcestershire team members, he praised Ian Botham for his
truly outstanding all-round skills, Tom Moody for his level headedness under
pressure and Graeme Hick for his contribution to the County's success. He said
that Graeme was a "lovely guy", but poked gentle fun at him as he
recounted the occasion when Graeme was more pleased at solving the
"Sun" crossword than the same day's score of 405 runs in one innings
against
Somerset
!
Tim
said that in a long and happy career with Worcestershire, one of his best
memories was when they won the "NatWest Trophy" for the first time in
1994. He concluded by asserting that the secret of good captaincy was "to
be lucky".
Dr.
David Malcolmson thanked Tim for an enjoyable and light hearted talk and
proposed the vote of thanks on behalf of the Society.
Gail Brown
click
here to go to the top of the page
INCOMING
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS
I
am very conscious of the honour of being elected President of the Kidderminster
Medical Society. I would like to thank Martin Lewis for his very successful
stewardship of the last year. We have had music, walking, cricket, tennis and
bird watching at 4 in the morning. These events have all been very enjoyable and
I shall be hard put to it to maintain the standard.
I
am not the the first President and probably not the last, whose father held the
office before him. Sam, Lionel and John Stretton were a dynasty that is not
likely to be repeated. Sam Wadsworth was elected President in 1958 after being
proposed by Bob Gibbins, who preceded him. At that time the President acted as a
sort of Clincal Tutor. Among the speakers that Sam arranged were Hugh Mclaren
and Thomas McKeown, Birmingham Professors of Obstetrics and Social Medicine
respectively, both of whom taught me and other Birmingham Graduates now in
Kidderminster. Professor McKeown said then that hospitals should get larger but
for reasons different from those that seem to be the case now. Other speakers
were Charles Evans, a neurologist, also a Himalayan climber of some distinction
who talked about altitude sickness, and Edward Ellis-Jones, a GP from Bristol
and the Charles Hastings prize-winner of 1957, a friend of my father, whom I
dimly remember, who talked about his research into blood pressure and urinary
changes in children with nephritis and various diseases. One of the things
Edward Ellis-Jones mentioned, 41 years ago, was the importance of the right size
of cuff to measure blood pressure, something that we're still learning. All in
all, this was quite an impressive postgraduate education programme. The
President of that time was also expected to throw a big party for his
colleagues, mostly out of his
own
pocket, and Sam said to me that he had to go and see his bank manager to
persuade him to increase his overdraft for this purpose. Since then the
President's function has changed and become more social than academic,
postgraduate education having been taken over by a subsidiary of the society.
Subscriptions have increased a little and I am hoping not to have to go and see
my bank manager.
Thirdly, what of the future? Times
change, and it seems inevitable that here there will be big changes very
shortly. The Kidderminster Medical Society has always enhanced the good
relationship that exists between consultants and GPs in the town and which has
oiled the mechanics, in unmeasurable ways, of the medical service that we give
our patients. The future hospital arrangements may become similar to what they
were 40 years ago and we may have only visiting consultants for Kidderminster-,
but those coming to work in the town will be very welcome in the Society, as,
for instance John Malins was then, and just as our colleagues from Dudley, for
example, are now. The Society has always existed simply for those medical
professionals (dental and veterinary too) who work or live in the town and
district. There will, I am sure, always be such people working here in spite of
of all these changes, and this Society is for those people. I might add that
this Society, over a hundred years old, has been around longer than the present
party of government.
Tim Wadsworth
click
here to go to the top of the page
Kidderminster Medical Society Cricket
Team pulled off a thrilling last ball victory over their Stourbridge and Dudley
counterparts on the 30th of June. An
enjoyable competitive game was played out in the delightful surroundings of
Chaddesley Corbett Cricket Club culminating in an exciting run chase by the
Kidderminster
batsmen as well as a race against time in view of the fading light and the
increasingly desperate need for liquid refreshment at the pub.
The
game began with a tidy bowling and fielding performance by the MedSoc side
marred only by a torn hamstring sustained by our inspirational president.
Highlights included some athletic fielding by Tim "the cat" Campion,
and an outstanding catch behind the wicket by John "eyes closed"
Spalding. The
Black Country
side finished with a tidy total, including a decent knock by Dave
"Judas" Richards.
After
a steady start our heroes suffered a mini-collapse due to a combination of poor
light and poor eyesight. Spurred on by support from the
small but vociferous and glamorous crowd, the partnership of
"scampering "Dave Malcolmson and "lumbering" Tony Carter
plundered 12 runs off the last over to break Stourbridge hearts.
Afterwards
all participants adjourned to "The Talbot" in Chaddesley for beer,
food, and tall tales about their dubious achievements. Man of the match award
has to go to Sam Morgan for a solid all-round performance despite having to play
for the opposition and suffering the humiliation of being bowled out by his dad.
An enjoyable evening sure to be repeated next year.
Tony Carter
click
here to go to the top of the page
OBITUARY
Harry Buchannan
Harry
died in 1997 and so apologies for this belated obituary; it is however
appropriate that it appears in the same edition as one of his closest friends,
Walter Dunsby.
Harry
was the last of the 'Old Guard' of Kidderminster Doctors. He came to
Kidderminster in the 30's, after qualifying in Trinity College Dublin, and
worked as a houseman in
Mill
Street
Hospital
at the same time as Bob Lurring.
They both joined Peter Porter’s practice in
Church Street
for a number of years before both setting up shop on their own, Harry in
Mill Street
by the side of the old Black Horse hotel and Bob in
Church Street
. Harry developed a thriving practice in an area which, in those days, was
densely populated.
In
1950, he took on a partner, Dr. John Brotherton, and together they worked for 22
years before moving in 1972 from
Mill Street
to the Health Centre in
Bromsgrove Street
. Harry took with him to the Health Centre, one of the first practice nurses in
the area and a very close family friend, Beena Dunsby, Wal Dunsby’s wife.
Shortly after moving to
Bromsgrove Street
, Harry retired from general practice and took great pleasure in telling
everyone that it took two Welshmen to replace him.
Shortly after this Harry firstly moved to his cottage on the Lleyn
Peninsular at Nevyn but then afterwards he moved to be near his daughter in
Kent
.
One of my most abiding memories of Harry was at a Christmas party in the Croft.
After initially a fairly dull evening he suddenly decided to start the party
going and played the piano for over an hour with us all joining in community
singing! It was very typical of Harry in that he was a natural extrovert and
loved a bit of fun.
click
here to go to the top of the page
OBITUARY
WALTER
DUNSBY
Walter
Dunsby who died in December 1998 was Senior Lab Technician at
Mill
Street
Hospital
, and later at
Bewdley
Road
Hospital
, for many years.
He was a
Birmingham
man and initially trained at
Queens
Hospital
, Bath Row,
Birmingham
. He moved from there in 1939 to
Kidderminster
, I believe having been tempted here
by Prof. Malins. He initially ran the Path Lab, which was in the heart of
Mill
Street
Hospital
, single handed. He was normally controlled by a busy Consultant who was based
in
Harley Street
but who rarely attended here.
In
1954 the Path Lab moved to Sunnyside - a recently demolished building in the
hospital grounds - with a staff of two or three. A that time the Consultant was
a Dr. Cruickshank who was shared between Kidderminster and Bromsgrove hospitals
and who spent most of his time in Bromsgrove. Dr.Cruikshank's main role was to
perform post mortems and in fact Walter's work was rarely supervised to any
significant degree.
In 1965 he was made an honorary member of the Medical Society for his services
to medicine in
Kidderminster
and District ,and he was a member and a regular attender thereafter for many
years. Walter transferred with the Path Lab to
Bewdley Road
in 1973 at which time Dr. Cruickshank was replaced by Dr. Lewis who is still in
charge of Haematology. One of Walter’s claims to fame was his very able piono
playing at all concerts and dances at
Mill Street
.
Walter
retired in 1980, to be followed by David Rea who continued as his successor
until the mid 90's. He maintained his contacts with the Medical Society and the
Post Graduate
Centre and was seen until not long before his death to be a regular attender at
the Monday lunchtime meetings.
He leaves a wife Beena who
still lives in Blakebrook. Walter married Bena when she was a sister in the out
patients department and before she became the first practice nurse in
Kidderminster
with Harry Buchannan.
The
Editor wishes to acknowledge the help of David and Brenda Rea for providing
information for this obituary.
click
here to go to the top of the page
The
Health Authority has offered G.P.s the chance to have up to 35 beds on the
hospital site after the closure of acute services.
At a stormy meeting, G.P.s were divided in their response to this offer,
many feeling that it was a buck passing attempt to solve a problem created by
the Health Authority itself in the first place. Others, naturally concerned for
the welfare of their patients, were keen to accept the offer. And some felt that
it was a short term solution to what was bound to be a growing problem of bed
shortages for the
Wyre
Forest
area in the first place, and in longer term, the County.
click
here to go to the top of the page
To return to the
Archive index click here