I met a SRN, Catherine Spiller, at the General Hospital in 1955 and we married in 1958. I spent two years in hospital House jobs in Wolverhampton and became fully registered with the GMC. As soon as this happened, I was conscripted for National Service with the RAMC in Aldershot.
The Congo uprising happened and I was given a Special Short Service Commission and sent to Ghana on Secondment to serve with the Ghanian Army Contingent in the Congo. I moved in elevated circles and never went to the Congo, serving my time as Garrison Medical Officer in Takoradi with responsibility for Army, Navy and fledgling Air Force. My wife joined me and my son was born in the Military Hospital, Accra.
After my return to the UK, I became a GP in Wolverhampton. My daughter was born in 1964 in Wolverhampton. Becoming dissatisfied with being a GP in the NHS, I migrated to Australia in 1966 and joined a Sydney GP. The writing was on the wall to disallow GPs access to Hospitals so I returned to the UK and trained in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Birmingham region. I was successful in the MRCOG examination, scoring the highest marks in the written papers, but failing to get the Gold Medal as I was not at my best in the Clinicals, since my mother had died the day before my viva.
I returned to Sydney and achieved a hospital appointment in O&G and spent 30 happy years in practice. My wife attended Sydney University and obtained a Diploma in Nursing Education. She then abandoned Nursing and studied for five years at University of NSW achieving a B.Arch (Hons). She was then 'head hunted' by the Department of Health and involved in Hospital Design. My daughter died of a dramatic cardiac arrest in 1989. My son attended Sydney Uni and became a dentist, with a BDS.
I retired in 2000. My wife died of carcinoma of the pancreas on St Valentine’s Day 2011. So, I am retired on the waterfront in the delightfully named suburb of Lilli Pilli on the Port Hacking Estuary in Sydney's South.