Chiddenbrook Surgery
Rogues Gallery
Chiddenbrook’s Senior Partners
1886 - 2005
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Introduction
The current GP partnership at Chiddenbrook has roots in Crediton going back
over 100 years. We have a partnership agreement to provide medical services
dating from 1913, but the documented origins of the practice date back well
before that.
This leaflet has been produced by popular demand in
response to the Rogues
Gallery displayed in the main waiting room. The Gallery is a photographic and
written record of the Senior Partners dating back to 1886. In this leaflet we
have a copy of the picture and script for each Senior Partner in the gallery.
Past Senior Partners:
Dr Leslie Powne MBE
1860 – 1942
Dr Harold Francis Lewis Hugo
1887 – 1946
Dr Norman Frederick Sawers
1902 – 1977
Dr Lawrence Nelson Jackson
1898 – 1984
Dr Bettie Pendrill Thurlow
1916 – 2008
Dr Christopher Hugh Maycock
1937
Dr Charles Phillip Kent
1953 – 2005
Note:
If there is anyone interested in conducting further research into the history of
the surgery please contact Richard Ward, Practice Manager.
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Dr. Leslie Powne
M.B.E.
He began to practise in Crediton in
1886 and retired in 1927.
He continued to work here as an
assistant, and elsewhere as a locum
tenens, until shortly before his
death in 1942, at the age of 82.
Dr. Harold Francis Lewis Hugo,
M.C.
In partnership with Dr. Leslie Powne
he began to practise here in 1912.
During the First World War he served
with distinction as Medical Officer to
the Devon Yeomanry.
Afterwards he returned and remained
in Crediton until shortly before his
death in 1946 at the early age of 62.
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Dr. Norman Frederick Sawers
M.B. Ch.B (Ed).
He was medically educated in Cape Town and subsequently in Edinburgh
where he qualified in 1933.
His first hospital appointment was in Sussex. He then practised at
Hartland in North Devon and later in Crediton from 1946 until his
retirement in 1966.
He was Medical Officer of health for Crediton Urban District Council,
and also ran a Rheumatism Clinic in Crediton for many years.
He was an ardent gardener, and a skilled craftsman in wood.
He continued to act as locum tenens in surrounding villages and in
Exeter until shortly before his death in 1977 at the age of 75.
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Dr Lawrence Nelson Jackson
M.C. T.D.
Lawrence Jackson, or ‘Jacko’, as he was widely known, practiced in Crediton
for over 50 years. Having read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, and
Medicine at the London Hospital, he came to Crediton in 1925.
Three years later he received his Doctorate of Medicine for a dissertation on
blood pressure and in 1932 with his wife, wrote an article for The Lancet on
lead poisoning in Crediton, entitled: 'A Local Outbreak of Devonshire Colic’.
He was a founder member of the Royal College of General Practitioners and
was later elected a Fellow of the College. He also initiated the promotion of
vasectomy in the United Kingdom making the operation legally secure. The
project later became 'The Crediton Project' of which he was Director and from
1955-63 he edited the newspaper of the International Planned Parenthood
Federation.
Dr Jackson was also Crediton Town Council and Medical Officer of Health for
the Rural District. He captained both the Crediton Cricket and Rugby Clubs,
and acted with the Crediton Dramatic Society. He also enjoyed writing and had
parodies published in Punch and the Lancet.
He was awarded the Military Cross as an artillery subaltern in World War 1 and
received the Territorial Decoration after the Second World War.
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Dr. Bettie Pendrill Thurlow
M.B. B.S. (Lond).
Bettie Thurlow qualified in 1943 from the Royal Free Hospital.
During and after The Second World War, she held numerous appointments at
The Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. This was followed by six years farming
on Exmoor before coming to practice in Crediton in 1947. She retired in 1976.
She is remembered for her kindness and unfailing energy which she devoted
particularly to older patients.
Her main interest has been in horses and she hunted regularly with the
Silverton Foxhounds. With an extensive knowledge of Dartmoor & Exmoor,
she spent her retirement, when not acting as a locum tenens, studying wildlife
and walking the Moors.
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Dr Christopher Hugh Maycock
M.A. M.B. B.Chir, (Cantab)
(DObst.RCOG 1964; MRCGP 1973; Cert. Theology, Exeter 1995)
Christopher was educated at Lancing College, Pembroke College,
Cambridge and St Thomas’ Hospital, London.
In 1966 Dr ‘Jacko’ Jackson wearing fishing clothes and Dr. Bettie Thurlow
in riding kit interviewed Christopher and his wife Rachel. Offered a
partnership ‘with-a-view’ they jumped at the prospect of working in a
country practice in deepest Devon, based on 55 High Street, Crediton.
After the birth in 1967 of their twins, James and Charlotte, they settled in
the hamlet of Neopardy.
After becoming Senior Partner in 1977 and then a GP Trainer and Lecturer,
Christopher campaigned for a new Community Hospital in Crediton, and
helped to commission the architectural award-winning Chiddenbrook
Surgery and Pharmacy in 1992.
Retiring in 1997, he became Chairman of St. Margaret’s School, Exeter and
an Hon. Fellow of the Woodard Schools Corporation. He published two
books about the 18C Cumbrian poet Susanna Blamire – a Biography and
Selected Poems, and lectured on the poet at the Worsworth Trust Book
Festival in Grasmere in 2001 and at a Literary Supper at Chawton House
Library in 2008. He continued GP locum work in Devon until 2008.
Christopher is currently writing a travel journal Summoned by Penelope
Betjeman: Overland to India in 1963, and at the same time fund-raising for
the Devon Historic Churches Trust. Other interests include country sports,
astronomy and jazz.
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Dr Charles Phillip Kent
(1953 – 2005)
Born in Bridgwater, Somerset; he was educated at St. Dunstan’s and
Blundell’s qualifying as a doctor from Oxford University.
General Practitioner in Crediton from 1982 – 2005, firstly in the High
Street and then at Chiddenbrook Surgery, where he worked until his
sudden and untimely death aged 51.
A passionate sportsman, including rugby at County and National level,
tennis, cricket, squash and latterly horse riding which he loved.
Enthusiastic about many subjects including country life, gardening,
music, his family and friends.
As with sport he entered in to medical practice with great enthusiasm
and total commitment. He will always be held in the highest esteem by
all those who knew and worked with him.
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