Bernard Brooks

Bernard Brooks qualified MB BS (London) from Westminster Hospital in 1954. Following house appointments at Westminster Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital at Lingfield, he served his national service in the army at Bicester Garrison, where he had care of families and the WRAC (Women’s Royal Army Corps) and where he met his future wife. After a brief attachment to the National Spinal Injuries Unit at Stoke Mandeville, he served a year as senior house officer in medicine at Churchill Hospital, Oxford. After training as a general practitioner, he joined a practice in Ewell, Surrey, where he was singlehanded for some years until he and his colleagues designed the Bourne Hall Health Centre, which combined seven general practitioners from the expanding district.

During his years in general practice he became a trainer, later an exceptional course organiser. He was an active fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. He had a special interest in manipulative medicine and became a lecturer to the School of Osteopathy. He retired from general practice in 1986, becoming a regional medical officer for the Department of Health and Social Security in the south of England, covering Wiltshire, Dorset, and the Isle of Wight, until his final retirement in 1996.

He died on 28 October 2010. He leaves his wife, Georgina; four children; and four grandchildren.