Published: June 7, 2012

 

By TOM FOOT

 

DR John Horder – widely regarded as a founding father of modern general practice – has died aged 92.

 

Dr Horder, who lived and worked as a family doctor in Primrose Hill and at a Kentish Town surgery under Dr John Wigg, later became president of the 

Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).

 

Dr Clare Gerada, chairwoman of the RCGP, said: “Dr John Horder was a true legend, one of the founding fathers of general practice and we owe him so much as a college, as a profession and as GPs.

 

“He campaigned tirelessly to improve the lives and care of patients. Despite his advancing years, he remained as interested, involved and as vibrant as ever.

“He was a gentlemen in the true sense of the word and his loss as a doctor and as a friend is immense. Our deepest condolences go to his widow Elizabeth and his family.”

 

While living in Regent’s Park Road, Dr Horder counted Sylvia Plath among his patients and made regular visits to the poet’s home before her suicide.

During a Desert Island Disc-style interview in Primrose Hill in 2010, he told an audience of about 200 people: “It was a bitter episode and I keep asking myself: was there anything more I could have done?”

 

In an Account of My Life, an autobiography originally intended for family and friends but published by the RCGP, he said he found “a mission and a drive” in his first job at the James Wigg Practice, in Bartholomew Road, Kentish Town.

 

He wrote: “Like most of my fellow students at Oxford and the London Hospital, I had picked up the impression that general practice was what you did if you failed to secure something better.  These two weeks were planned as a stopgap, but proved to be a revelation.”

 

His writings reveal how he enjoyed weekends at the Sussex house his father had designed. 

 

He had paintings displayed at Sadler’s Wells and the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. The RCGP has set up an award in his memory.

 

His funeral will be held privately, attended by children and grandchildren.

 

A full obituary will follow in next week's New Journal.