John Cleary

John Cleary, who died at the end of January, spent almost all his working life in the Public Dental Service. He had qualified in 1949 BDS at University College Dublin, and in that year was appointed Assistant Dental Officer to Warwickshire County Council. Subsequently, he held similar posts in London, Down County and Middlesex. From 1960 he had combined part-time Public service with a small general practice but in 1965, aware that there was to be re-organisation of the School Dental Service he applied for the position of Chief Dental Officer with the London Borough of Southwark. In 1969, along with a number of colleagues he studied for a Diploma in Public Health and this was awarded to him by the Royal College of Surgeons. This provided a specialism which he felt himself best suited to. The new position in Southwark carried a substantial increase in duties: annual inspections of school children; extension of treatment facilities to the Council's day-nurseries; introduction of a mobile dental clinic; and joint projects with the Department of Children's Dentistry at Guy's Hospital and with the New Cross School for Auxiliaries. In 1974, the newer posts of Area Dental Officers were introduced. It was a historic moment, challenging, stimulating or disturbing depending on the energies of those required to change. John was appointed to one of the new area posts, at the Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster Health Authority, and in 1983 became District Officer to Paddington and North Kensington. He retired in 1988.

A well-liked administrator, a perfectionist and a humane man, he was not alone in having these qualities. He had in his youth suffered undiagnosed cholesteotoma which required protracted and repeated surgery in later life, and caused severe hearing loss. This was compensated by his arrestingly wide knowledge of political history, and his abiding joy in reading. In his student days he was a champion sculler on several Irish rivers. He had a large and affectionate family of whom he was very fond. He did not forget the hundreds of people with whom he had worked. He had observed their spirit.

A.A.C.

John Philip Onions

John Onions died suddenly and unexpectedly on February 18 2001, aged 62 years. He attended Loughborough Grammar School before entering Birmingham Dental School, graduating in 1960. After nearly two years in both General Dental Practice and the Maternity and Child Welfare Dental Service in Birmingham he joined a General Dental Practice in Loughborough. He entered the Royal Army Dental Corps in 1964 on a five-year short service commission from which he gained great enjoyment and satisfaction both professionally and from the Army life. He completed his commission and left at the rank of Major, mainly because he wished to be able to give his family a more settled life.

In 1969 he was appointed to a senior clinical post in the Community Dental Service in Leicester and whilst there undertook postgraduate studies leading to a Diploma in Dental Health of Birmingham University, which he gained with merit in 1972. In 1974 he was appointed as Area Dental Officer to Nottinghamshire and in 1984 was appointed as one of the earliest Consultants in Dental Public Health. He was Treasurer of the Community Dental Services Group of the BDA from 1977 to 1982 and President in 1988. He was part of the team that led the training for the OIPCS National Surveys of Dental Health in 1973,1978 and 1983. From 1985 to 1991 when he was Deputy General Manager of the Nottingham Community Unit and a consultant, John took on greater responsibilities in a wide range of community clinical support services.

At about this time John developed serious problems in his cervical spine necessitating major surgery to fuse four vertebrae. Though successful, John was never free of pain and took early ill-health retirement in 1992. For a while he worked from home as a consultant for Nottingham Health Authority, developing computer based information and monitoring systems for primary medical services. He also developed an interest in the Magistry, eventually becoming Vice Chairman of the Newark Bench. He undertook work in connection with the appointment process of new magistrates on behalf of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee.

When John and his family moved to the tiny village of Sibthorpe in Nottinghamshire, John, in typical style, gave great support to the both parish and the Parish Church.

John was a perfectionist, a Christian, and a man of strong principles but at the same time a very practical man always ready to help anyone in need. This was evident from the village church packed with family, colleagues and friends all, of whom gathered to celebrate a life lived to the full, as well as to express their sympathy to his wife Margaret, Elizabeth, Philip and John's four grandchildren.

R.H.B.

Death notice Donald Macfarlane, past Chairman of the Bristish Standards Toothbrush Committee, passed away on 1 April 2001.

He qualified from Guy's Hospital Dental School in 1935 and joined the RAF Dental Branch Volunteer Reserve from 1939–1945. He became Head of Hygienists School at Guys in 1970 and the next year designed new scalers. He retired from Guy's in 1979 but continued to be active in dentistry and the FDI for many years.