NORTH Tawton and the wider area is coming to terms with the death on Friday, May 4, of Dr Jean Shields, after a 24-hour illness. She was 88.

The only child of Enid and Colin Philip, Jean was born in 1930 in the house her parents had built on the family farm (de Bathe) at North Tawton, a house in which she was to spend much of her life.

She spent a happy childhood on the farm embracing country pursuits, particularly riding, but knew by the age of 10 that she wanted to be a doctor.

After schooling at The Maynard School in Exeter she trained at the Middlesex Hospital, qualifying in 1953.

It was there that she met and married a fellow medical student, David Shields.

After a few years working in London and East Anglia they returned to Devon in 1958 with their infant sons Peter and John, when David joined the Okehampton GP practice.

While her sons were young, Jean worked part-time in Child Health as a schools doctor, and also ran Family Planning clinics in Devon and Cornwall.

She was a leading figure in Family Planning in the South West in the 1960s and early 1970s at a time when this was not available on the NHS.

In 1974 an opportunity came to join her husband in the Okehampton practice and she became a full-time GP.

In those days the four GPs in the practice provided all the evening and weekend cover between them and did many home visits as fewer patients had their own transport, so it was a relentlessly busy life.

That suited Jean who was always happiest when working, whatever the work was. She still found time for riding, and for raising her family.

In 1985 Jean followed David into retirement from full-time GP work, and they moved from Okehampton back to her childhood home in North Tawton where she was to remain for more than 30 years.

Both sons lived locally so they saw plenty of their children and grandchildren, and they both enjoyed walking on Dartmoor and shared a keen interest in rugby and cricket.

Jean wasn’t ready to give up medical work altogether and worked part-time until she was 70, initially as a locum GP and later as a disability benefits assessor. She also played an active role supporting St John Ambulance in Okehampton, rewarded (as David had been) by being made an Officer of the Order of St John.

After David’s early death in 1991 she threw herself into local history research, joining local history societies in Okehampton, Bow and Crediton and also volunteering at Okehampton and Crediton museums.

She was North Tawton Parish Archivist and an acknowledged expert on the history of North Tawton and its families, co-writing "The Book of North Tawton" (2002, reprinted 2011). These endeavours were recognised with a British Empire Medal in 2013.

As she moved into her 80s, and by now a great-grandmother, her involvement in these and other activities reduced, but she was still living independently until a month before her death.

She will be very much missed by her family and by all those whom she served or befriended over so many years.

The funeral will take place at 1.30pm at St Peter’s Church, North Tawton, on Friday, May 18.