Former senior medical officer Department of Health and Social Security, Belfast (b Abbeville, France, 1919; q Queen's University, Belfast, 1942), d 12 April 2004.
Figure 1.
After serving with the Royal Navy in the second world war, JD was a popular general practitioner in Belfast. He joined the DHSS in 1970, first in the medical referee service and then, from 1976 to his retirement in 1983, as senior medical officer in Belfast Prison. In the trying circumstances of that post, JD's unflappable nature and his understanding of the prisoners' clinical and personal problems were highly regarded. He leaves a wife, Libby; three children; and seven of his eight grandchildren.