T Arfon Williams

The death on October 16 1998 of Thomas Arfon Williams, took from the Welsh nation a son who loved it, from its language a son who celebrated, communicated and expanded it, and from dentistry, its patients and practitioners, an upright professional who worked considerately and incorruptibly for their betterment.

Born in the Rhondda Valley in 1935, Arfon studied dentistry at King's College Hospital, London, where he gained his Licentiateship and became house surgeon. Quintessentially a primary care practitioner, his first foray was into general practice in Penmaenmawr, north Wales, where he gained both a commitment to children's dentistry and a 'gem o wraig ddigymar' — 'an incomparable jewel of a wife', Elinir Wynne Jones, who became his constant companion and enduring inspiration.

His interest in paedodontics returned him to his home valley as dental officer to Rhondda Borough for four years, then, in a senior post, on to Swansea Borough. In 1969 he became chairman of the South Wales Branch of the British Paedodontic Society. In 1970 he joined the civil service as dental officer at the Welsh Office, and served it for the rest of his professional life with an integrity and commitment not always reciprocated. In 1985-6, thoughtfully, sensitively and effectively, he served as acting chief dental officer for Wales. He retired to Caeathro, north Wales, the area of his last posting. Here he was chairman of, and helped to found the society for Welsh speaking dentists, Cymdeithas Deintyddol Cymru.

Those of us who speak only the 'thin language', as English is known to Welsh speakers, but who were fortunate enough to have worked with him and enjoyed his friendship and gentle intellect, knew we had seen only half of the man. His intellectual, cultural and social life was essentially Welsh.

He was a master of the englyn, a four-lined epigrammaic poetic form of great intricacy and powerful emotion. He has left several hundred examples, many published with accolade in the monthly Barradas and in three collections; Englynion Arfon (1978), Annus Mirabilis (1984) and Cerddi Arfon (1996). So skilled was he in the form that he also produced them incomparably in English, and one such is used in The New Companion in the Literature of Wales (1998) to illustrate the englyn.

A life long congregationalist, he was to have been president of the Union of Welsh Independents in the millenium year. His poems were a window on his profound and sustaining Christian faith and on his ever fresh love for his wife and his pride in his daughter and two sons. We enjoin their grief and thank them for sharing him with us.

His pen in silent stillness lies.

No smog from pipe assails our eyes-

Yet sting they do,

As we missed fellowship now rue.

Leslie Colin Wood

Sadly, Leslie Colin Wood died on September 19 last year, following a thankfully short period of illness.

Colin was born in south Manchester on October 6 1937. After initially attending school close to his home, he then went away to Rossall School on the Fylde coast. After a brief spell in industry he entered the Edinburgh Dental School which was the start of his love affair with Scotland. Here he became an enthusiastic member of the Dramatic Society and the Dental Hospital rugby team and in his final year was elected President of the Edinburgh Dental Students Society.

Following his graduation in 1963, Colin initially worked in general dental practice until his interest in orthodontics persuaded him to follow post-graduate training in the Manchester area, culminating in his achieving the DOrth RCS in 1970.

In 1965, Colin confirmed his love affair with Scotland by marrying a fellow dental graduate from Edinburgh, Moira Duncan Sharp. After some time in specialist orthodontic practice in south Manchester, Colin and Moira subsequently moved to Stranraer in south west Scotland in 1973, Moira into general dental practice in the town and Colin opening a specialist orthodontic practice in Ayr, where he worked until his retirement in October 1997.

Colin was known to all who had the pleasure of his company for his sheer enthusiasm for life. He was also known for his own considered good fortune for the life that he led, surrounded by the beauty of the countryside and the coastline of south west Scotland.

Colin's interests were many and varied and included golf, tennis, music, gardening and sailing. Typifying his unselfish and outgoing personality, he had given his time unstintingly for the benefit of young people in the Ocean Youth Club in his capacity as a qualified ocean yachtmaster and as a youth rugby coach.

Colin will be remembered for his sociable relaxed manner, which made him firm friendships with others from all walks of life. He will be sorely missed by all and particularly by his wife, Moira, and their son, Robbie, a sixth former at school in Edinburgh.

M J M

DEATH NOTICES

Gerald George Gent died after a long illness on December 31 1998.

All donations to Alzheimers disease charities please.

James Cargill Kinniburgh, a well-known and respected GDP in Scotland, died on December 16 1998.