JUST 22 members of Crediton Probus Club gathered at Downes Crediton Golf Club for our December meeting. Our President, Richard Adams, opened the proceedings by asking John Marshall to say grace.

After an excellent meal, Keith Barker gave the quotation (which was topical, as it concerned Donald Trump).

Brian Threllfall had earlier circulated to members a note of the deaths of past club members; their funerals having taken place in the past month (the club was well-represented at them). He said that he had had no reports of any seriously ill members.

The draw prize was won by John Wakefield.

Gerald Hill introduced our speaker, Dr Christopher Maycock (he was standing in for a booked speaker who was unable to make it to the meeting).

Christopher said that he was going to give a brief account of his very rich life, illustrating this with a few nostalgic anecdotes. Systematic recall of events was becoming more difficult as some of his elderly patients used to say: “It’s me age, doctor!”

He started by giving us his earliest memory. This was in November, 1940 when, as a three-year-old, he watched a dog fight between a Junkers bomber and RAF fighters over Cheltenham.

He remembers walking over to the plane’s carcass mentioning that the RAF had sent down a guard of honour for the crew’s funeral.

Christopher spent most of the rest of the war years in safer Sidmouth. His early (boarding-school) education was in the austerity years of the later 1940’s. He was inspired to go into medicine aged 14 and was successful in gaining a place in St Thomas Hospital Medical College.

Ways of studying medicine in the 50’s were very different to those of today. Instead of the sophistication of Crick and Watsons’ double helix and DNA dealt with by modern students, Christopher and his colleagues were presented with 120 formaldehyde-preserved cadavers neatly laid out on marble slabs. This display came as rather a rude shock to everyone.

Whist at college he took part in Christmas shows and was a member of the OTC. In his first posting after becoming a doctor, he was on call for 12-and-a-half successive days and nights.

After finishing all training he married Rachel and having deferred National Service to do his medical training, then missed it because of its abolition.

He started at Chiddenbrook Surgery in its old premises in Park Street in 1967.

Since his retirement he has done locum work, made increased use of his three-inch telescope and tackled a Certificate in Theology at Exeter University.

Christopher was thanked by David Dornom for his most interesting and amusing talk and said that it was a remarkable feat to deliver something like it with so little notice.

The meeting finished with the usual toast: “To the next time!”

Keith Barker