An Autobiography of a Colonial Doctor

About the Book

The book is an autobiography of the writer who from an early age was a prolific note keeper, a habit which enabled him to amass thousands of written pages of information which he incorporated into this text. In the storyline are to be found descriptions of incidents he witnessed during the period 1928-56. The book’s cover is a photograph of Gibraltar taken in 1890 from Campamento Spain and before Gibraltar’s harbour was built. It shows the fortification walls as the French and Spaniards would have seen them during the Great Siege (1789-83). The Irish Flag represents his wife’s birthplace and the Union Jack his. Most of the photographs in the book are from the family’s archives and were taken when photography was in its primitive and non-pixel stage. In his young life the writer, oblivious to the landings occurring in the nearby Port of Algeciras, missed the advancing army of General Franco by a few hours despite the fact that gunfire could be heard a few miles away. Four years later he was to cross a devastated Spain on his way to boarding school in England. On that occasion they were also unaware that Hitler’s armies were testing the Dutch defences before coming down in top gear. Their experiences in wartime Britain, the doodlebug, the North West blitz, his Stonyhurst College experience and the aftermath of peace are all recorded. The writer talks about the changes that took place in Gibraltar and his father’s election to the 1st legislative Council as the only candidate elected on the 1st count. The Queen’s visit to Gibraltar and their connections with the Maharaj of Jodhpur during the last days of Imperial Britain are also described. The book is one of the selected Alumni stories for the tercentenary celebrations of the School of Physics at Trinity College Dublin 2011.

About the Author

“An Autobiography of a Colonial Doctor”, spans the turbulent period 1928-1956 and describes how it affected the writer, a doctor , born on his grandfather’s racecourse in Campamento, Spain on the 1st March 1928, a leap year, which he missed by a short head. By the age of one the writer’s family had moved back to Gibraltar the 1st decade of life being somewhat idyllic given that schooling was not on his calendar. At age 10 he was sent to Hodder place, the Jesuit preparatory school of Stonyhurst College, England where his great uncle, father, cousin and grandson were head-boys- a distinction that few families achieve worldwide. He was at Stonyhurst during the WW2 years. In 1947 he entered the gates of “heaven on earth”- Trinity College Dublin where he read medicine. This was to be his new home and he graduated with a B.A. in 1951, an MB, BCH, BAO, LAHI in 1953, an M.A. in 1958 and finally many years later the M.I.C.G. He met his future wife May Ringrose in 1952 and they were married 4 years later. They had 4 sons. After University he held several hospital appointments in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. He worked with the Medical Research Council in tuberculosis when the disease was a worldwide scourge, returning to Gibraltar in 1956 to set up practice. He established a 1st class general practice, became Port Health officer and was made honorary consultant to the Royal Naval Hospital. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a numerario to the Spanish College of otolaryngologist. He stood for election as an independent nationalist candidate and became a prolific writer with an anti-neo colonial flavour.