Garth Lancaster 1932-2020

Sadly Dr J Garth Lancaster passed away at his home in East Carlton on 11^th December 2020.

Garth first attended Sir Thomas Rich’s Bluecoat School, Gloucester, relatively near Oxford, so most pupils proceeded there. However, Garth was one of the two first pupils to go to Cambridge. In 1951, he joined Fitzwilliam House to read Medicine, on advice from his excellent headmaster, Peter Veale, a Fitzwilliam graduate. At that time, the university was a strange mixture of War Veterans and schoolboys replacing them. Fitzwilliam House was an elegant house, where the students dined, across from the towering columns of the Fitzwilliam Museum. Garth lived round the corner, in Pembroke Street – central and handy for both lectures and labs. He took his BA in 1954, then left for King’s College Hospital, London, for clinical training. He returned to Cambridge for his Batchelors in Medicine and Surgery.

As a Captain in the Army, he was deployed to the Seychelles, where there were few physicians and heavy responsibilities. The islanders did not want him to leave; he was tempted but left. In Plymouth Hospital he gained experience and would have liked to take a paediatric position in Cornwall. He left for family reasons, always important to him. His next position as a GP in Corby was the rest of his life. Even in school days, he showed great empathy and he was faithful to his school friends for the rest of his lift. He leaves his wife, Barbara, and daughters, Penny (forensic scientist) and Belinda (lawyer) and many friends.