John Kenneth Roberts

• Download figure
• Open in new tab
• Download powerpoint

John Kenneth Roberts (“Ken”) was born in a humble terraced house in Holyhead. His father was on the footplate of the LMS locomotives, including the Irish Mail. At the Victoria Terrace practice as a small boy he would stand trembling at the corner of Dr Ted Hughes’s desk. Hughes was a legendary character, who performed many operations at the local cottage hospital, and young Ken wanted to be a doctor like him. Advancing through local primary and grammar schools he was fortunate to gain a postwar state scholarship taking him to Manchester, covering all expenses. In 1958 he married Margaret, also from Holyhead, whom he met when she was 16. His first house post was in orthopaedics with Mr D Lloyd Griffiths at Manchester Royal Infirmary, also covering a few beds of Sir John Charnley during his transfer to Wrightington. His second house post in Bangor was medicine with Dr Mackinson. Duties included covering casualty, which he loved, making contact with Mr G I Roberts, the sole orthopaedic surgeon. After six months of obstetrics with Mr O V Jones he returned to the C&A Hospital as an orthopaedic senior house officer, dealing with mountaineering accidents at weekends. He then joined Leslie Jones, a singlehanded practitioner at Llanfair PG, passing through assistantship, partnership, and then succession on his retirement. He also worked four sessions a week in orthopaedics as a clinical assistant, operating to registrar level, outpatients and alternate weekends on call. This was his happiest time as he had the best of both worlds. Unfortunately the work became too onerous after 10 years, and he moved to a practice in Timperley, joining Leslie Tulk and Betty Coates. He spent four very happy years with wonderful partners, then came a call from Victoria Terrace, Holyhead, offering immediate partnership. The call to “come home” was too strong to resist, so he moved back to Anglesey, much to the sorrow of the Timperley practice. He found himself at Dr Ted Hughes’s desk, with small children standing at the corner—ambition achieved! He spent many happy years with his partners and working at the local cottage hospital (Stanley Sailor’s). He was involved in building a new surgery for the practice and a new Penrhos Stanley hospital. He also renewed his clinical assistantship one session a week in Bangor with Mr G I Roberts, now a personal friend. He experienced the move to the new Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital, and after Roberts’s retirement he worked with Mr David Jones, who later moved to Great Ormond Street and is now retired emeritus professor in paediatric surgery.

Because of ill health Ken took early retirement in 1994 and enjoyed a long and happy retirement despite two near brushes with death. A member of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society he ran their newsletter for several years. He was involved with archaeological digs and, with his lifelong friend, made historical documentary DVDs. An enthusiastic member of Probus and U3A, he also found time to travel to Europe, the USA, Canada, and South Africa. His hobbies were Meccano, illustrating books, and cartooning. His greatest love was St Cybi’s Church, situated within a small Roman fort in Holyhead. He had researched its history and would conduct tours and speak to visiting cruise ship passengers, introducing male voice choirs after talking about the church and Welsh history.

He leaves his wife, Margaret; son, John; daughter, Alison; and four grandchildren.