Remembering Uncle Roy

I attended a family funeral yesterday.

During his working life my Uncle Roy (my mother's brother) was a GP who trained at St Thomas's Hospital in London in the 1950s.

(For decades I thought I was born at St Thomas's because of that connection but I'm now told I was born at another hospital nearby.)

Anyway, from the stories I've heard, Uncle Roy and his fellow trainee doctors could have been the inspiration for Doctor in the House, the 1954 film starring starring Kenneth More, Dirk Bogarde, and James Robertson Justice.

After he qualified, Roy married, became a GP, and moved with his family (I have four cousins) to Colchester where he commissioned an architect to design a spacious modern house that included a surgery and waiting room on the ground floor.

This was the house that subsequently featured in a Channel 4 series called From Ugly House to Lovely House, which I wrote about here.

But as well as enjoying a successful medical career, Roy was also an amateur racing driver. After rolling his car once too often, he eventually quit and took up sailing instead.

His interest in sport also led him to become medical officer to the British team at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Within twelve months he was appointed chairman of the British Olympic Association medical committee.

I remember him chiefly, though, for his warmth and good humour, and the wry amusement with which he greeted most things in life.

After he retired he and my aunt Sarah moved to West Mersea on Mersey Island near Colchester where they were members of the local yacht club and where a memorial to Roy will take place next month.

Yesterday's service was primarily for immediate family and it was nice to meet and talk to cousins I haven't seen for decades.

Roy was 94, a grand old age. His older sister (my aunt), who lives in Zurich, is 99, and my mother is 93.

The question is, have those long life family genes been passed down to me? I sincerely hope not!