The 2004 Talmage Read Lecture: 'One hundred years of dental education in Leeds' Given on 16 October 2004, Leeds Dental Institute, University of Leeds

Key Points

• The first purpose built dental school and hospital in Leeds was opened on 26 March 1928.

• Professor T. Talmage Read was appointed warden in 1931 and served for 28 years.

• Professor F.E. Hopper, Dean from 1959–1985, played a major role in the development of a new dental and medical school building in Leeds, opened on 23 March 1979.

Abstract

Thank you very much for inviting me to give the Talmage Read Lecture, on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the Leeds Dental School and Hospital. Professor Read obviously had a major impact on the Leeds Dental School. (Fig. 1)

The development of dental education in Leeds

The Leeds Public Dispensary

The Leeds Public Dispensary provided the first home for the institution which was later to become the University of Leeds School of Dentistry.¹ It was founded in 1824 to serve 'the sickpoor'. The Dispensary started off in some rooms in 'The House of Recovery' and moved to its own building in North Street in 1828. Three years later it agreed to let the whole of the north wing of this building to the founders of the Leeds Medical School, so facilitating the development of the Leeds School of Medicine. At the turn of the century land facing North Street was purchased to erect a new building which was planned to include a dental department. This new building facilitated the opening of the dental department and school.

The large demand for dental treatment at the Dispensary made the local dentists more aware of the value of establishing a formal dental training in Leeds. In 1888 a committee of dentists put forward a proposal to the council of the Medical School, seeking to establish a complete dental curriculum in connection with the medical department of the Yorkshire College.

Sowing the seeds

However, progress was slow. George Brunton, a Leeds dentist and President of the British Dental Association in 1900, may be credited with initiating the final burst of activity which led to the decision to form the School of Dentistry. The Annual General Meeting of the BDA was held in Leeds in 1900. Mr Brunton arranged for delegates to look over the Medical School building. (Fig 2)

Figure 2

Mr G.Brunton, President, BDA, 1900

In his presidential address he said that the medical department of the Yorkshire College and Infirmary were in a position to provide all the teaching in the way of anatomy, physiology, surgery and to provide the necessary training in hospital work.² George Brunton was a man of outstanding ability and influence within the dental profession. He was one of only three unqualified men to become President of the British Dental Association. The other two were Arthur Ball in 1920 and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1980.

On 18 October 1900, at the Annual General Meeting of the Leeds Dispensary, it was resolved that 'The sub-committee charged with formulating the requirements of the new building are hereby instructed to include five rooms for the accommodation of a dental department'.³ There were still a number of hurdles to be overcome. Mr Robert Levitt, a member of the Dispensary Committee, and a trustee, supported the Dispensary having a dental department, but was strongly opposed to establishing an educational department 'which would entail vast expense upon the Dispensary'.⁴ In the end it was decided to proceed with rooms for the so-called 'dental department' but not equip them until sufficient funds were forthcoming.

At a meeting of the Leeds District Section of the North Midlands Branch of the BDA held on 17 November 1903, Mr Alfred Cocker, made the following speech, published in the British Dental Journal in 1904:⁵

'One of the most difficult problems that confronts us is that of the pressing need of dental service on behalf of the poor and needy. The degeneration which is going on in all our large towns and other thickly populated districts, owing to decayed teeth, insufficient diet and the want of pure air is deplorable.

What is most urgently needed is government legislation for the compulsory attention to the teeth of school children.

In the absence of such legislation, I trust that our Leeds members will form themselves into a committee, for the purpose of adopting a scheme whereby dental service can be rendered to the poor and needy in this large and growing city.

With a unity of purpose on their part the ways and means will readily be found, and their philanthropy will be a means of strengthening the spirit of professional amity and devotion amongst themselves.'

A committee was formed with the object of establishing a Provident Dental Dispensary in Leeds. It consisted of: T.S. Carter, T. Gaddes, J. Nichol, P. T. Leigh and R. L. Young. This group of dentists negotiated with the Leeds Public Dispensary for the next six months, resulting in approval to equip the rooms in the Leeds Dispensary, providing that the Leeds and District Section of the BDA could contribute an adequate sum of money to fit up the department with the necessary furniture, equipment and stock.⁶

The new dispensary building was formally opened on Thursday 12 May 1904 by Dr (later Sir) Thomas Clifford Allbutt, FRS, Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge University and a former member of the Dispensary staff. In his speech Dr Albutt expressed gratified surprise at the inclusion of a dental department and said that it appeared to him that it might become a centre from which would arise a dental school which might take a very high place in the North of England. (Fig 3)

Figure 3

The Leeds Dispensary, Official Opening 1904 (site of the first Dental Department)

The opening of the dental department

One year later, the dental department in connection with the Leeds Public Dispensary was formally opened by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Mr Robert Armitage on 27 July 1905.⁷ The Leeds section of the BDA contributed over £500 for instruments and equipment. The Leeds Mercury headline was 'Teeth extracted free'.

The coming together of four major factors, the interest of the Infirmary, the Medical School and support from Leeds dentists coinciding with the Dispensary's need for a new building enabled ideas to be turned into action, with respect to the birth of dental education in Leeds.

The first warden Mr W.E. Margetson 1905–1908

The first warden was Mr W.E. Margetson, MRCS LDS, who held the post for three years. Mr Margetson was born in 1855 and qualified by the dental licence in 1877. When he was appointed the First Warden of the Dental School in 1905 he was 50 years of age. He died, unexpectedly at his residence in Dewsbury on 15 August 1913. The British Dental Journal records 'As he was but 58, and regarded as being in good health, much sympathy will be felt for his widow, two sons, and two daughters, who were at Blackpool when he was seized with illness.'⁸

Figure 4

Walter Marston, Warden 1908–1910

Walter Marston and the dental school 1900–1934 (Fig. 4)

The second warden, Mr Marston was one of the senior members of the first honorary staff when the dental department was established in the Leeds Public Dispensary in 1905. He had obtained his LDS Diploma in 1895. He served as Warden from 1908-1910. As Chairman of the Dental Committee, warden of the dental school and Honorary Treasurer for many years, he took a leading part in the development of the hospital and school. He was awarded an Honorary Degree of Master of Science by Leeds University in 1928, a public recognition of his valuable services in the advancement of the dental school and of dental education generally. In addition to his other appointments he was a Northern Regional Dental Officer to the Ministry of Health. He reached retiring age in 1934 and had to resign his honorary staff appointment, having served the dental school for 30 years. He was described as a 'kindly man and a loyal friend, who did much for dentistry when it was struggling for professional status, and by his life and bearing attained not only respect and esteem for himself, but also for the profession which he so faithfully served.'⁹ Mr Marston was a keen golfer and in October 1935 presented a silver cup for competition amongst the past and present members of the dental school. The cup was won by Mr D.J. Cork in 1935. In 1938 the winner was Professor T. Talmage Read. Walter Marston died on 25 June 1957 aged 87 years.

Stephen Daniel Hey, Warden 1910–1918

Walter Marston was succeeded by Stephen Daniel Hey, who qualified from the Royal Dental Hospital in 1897. Stephen Hey was born at Whitwood, near Normanton in Yorkshire on 2 December 1874. He was educated at Wakefield Grammar School and later at the Mount Academy, Malton and then went to the Royal Dental Hospital and Charing Cross Medical School, qualifying in 1897. The following year he took up dental practice in Leeds, at first in Clarendon Road and later at 32 Park Square. He also had rooms at 18 Wimpole Street, London. (Fig. 5)

Figure 5

Stephen Daniel Hey, Warden 1910–1918

He succeeded Walter Marston as warden in 1910 and continued in office until 1918, and then continued as Clinical Dental Lecturer and Honorary Lecturer in Operative Dental Surgery from 1912 to 1935. He was active in the affairs of the BDA; for many years he and Charles Rippon were representatives of the Branch on the Representative Board of the BDA.

He was one of the first men in the country to use local anaesthesia and had an excellent paper on the subject published in the British Dental Journal in 1910, the first on the subject in the BDJ.¹⁰ In about 1935 he left Leeds to practise exclusively in Wimpole Street and eventually lived in Poole in Dorset. He had three daughters; the second, Eileen undertook dental studies in Leeds, qualifying in 1929, later working with her father both in Leeds and London. He died in 1960, aged 85 years and in his will left sums of money to be used for annual prizes in conservative dentistry at the Leeds Dental School and the Royal Dental Hospital.

Mr William Sinton Thorburn, Warden 1918–1929

Mr William Sinton Thornburn succeeded Mr Hey and was warden for 11 years. (Fig. 6) His contribution to Leeds Dental School and Hospital was summarised by Professor J. Kay Jamieson, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the honorary degree ceremony held at the University on 16 March 1928. In presenting Mr Thorburn for the degree of Master of Science, Professor Jamieson said:

Figure 6

William Sinton Thorburn, Warden 1918–1929

'In singling out for recognition a member from the many who have worked for the new dental school and hospital the certainty of the acclaim and the suffrages of his brethren gives us an additional satisfaction in presenting the name of William Sinton Thorburn. From the day of his election to the honorary staff he has given unfaltering attention to the welfare of the institution with an industry, determined purpose and unshakeable optimism which, we trust, will now give him a well-earned gratification more keen than any of us is entitled to feel. Colleagues and students equally appreciate the value of his long tenure of the office of Warden, profitable to us and without doubt a joy to one of his nature.' ¹¹

Developments in the 1920s

Events leading to the Dentist's Act 1921

The years between 1905 and 1921 were bedevilled by the terrible state of oral health in Great Britain, the onset of the Great War between 1914–1918, the small number of qualified dentists available to treat the public and the problems within the profession concerning unregistered practitioners. The number of students entering the Leeds dental course in the early years was very small. By 1914 the shortage of students in the school had reached worrying proportions. In 1916 six students entered the school. No new entrants were recorded for 1917 and only one for 1918. There was a shortage of students and a number of lecturers were engaged in military service.

In July 1917 the Privy Council set up a committee under the chairmanship of The Rt. Hon. Sir Francis Dyke Ackland, MP to investigate the extent and gravity of the evils connected with the practice of dentistry and dental surgery by persons not qualified under the Dentist's Act.¹² The population in 1917 was estimated to be about 46 million, whilst the number of registered dentists was 5,500. The Ackland Committee proposed three remedies to the deplorable state of dentistry: legislation, control and education. Legislation would restrict the practice of dentistry to properly qualified and registered practitioners. Control was to be vested in a Dental Board under the authority of the General Medical Council. Education was seen as the means of restricting practice to qualified people. The dental curriculum should be decided by the different licensing and teaching bodies, ie the Royal Colleges and Universities, subject to supervision by the Dental Board. (Fig. 7)

Figure 7

Rt.Hon. Sir William Dyke Ackland, Chairman of the Dental Board of the UK 1921–1939 (Portrait at the General Dental Council)

In response to the Ackland Committee's report, the Government introduced a Bill, which eventually became the Dentist's Act 1921, establishing the Dental Board of the United Kingdom.¹³ Its chief responsibilities were those of maintaining the register and distributing funds for dental education. The Board was empowered to levy an annual fee for retaining a name on the register, and could apply any surplus funds, after meeting expenses, to dental education. These funds were to prove extremely useful to Leeds Dental School in the future.

The University and the development of dentistry in Leeds in the 1920s

There had been close links with the Medical School since inception of the dental department at the Leeds Public Dispensary. The question of affiliating the dental department to the University had been mooted as early as 1908. The administrative structures within the university enabled it to oversee the considerable growth in the school which occurred between the end of the First World War and 1928.

As the number of students, and the number of patients, increased, so facilities at the Dispensary became increasingly stretched. The problem of how to accommodate 40 students in space then housing 15 was now exercising the minds of the Dispensary Dental Department and the University. Accommodation was offered in the Leeds General Infirmary. The Dental School was moved from the Dispensary and transferred to the Infirmary on 11 October 1920.

However, this accommodation soon proved inadequate for the work of the Dental School. The British Dental Journal reported on a prize-giving ceremony at Leeds Dental School on 12 June 1922 presided over by Sir Michael Sadler, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University.¹⁴ He remarked that the dental school was only, in its formal connection with the University, 17 years old, but it had a record of which they were proud, and they hoped they might see it become, as its fostering medical school was, one of the great centres of training for this country. Having acknowledged the debt of gratitude which the school owes to the dental profession in the city, the Leeds Public Dispensary, the Guardians and the General Infirmary, the Vice Chancellor concluded:

'We do need urgently within the precincts of the Infirmary a building devoted to dental work, and planned for that purpose. We look forward to the time when within the walls of the Infirmary estate Leeds will see rising a worthy building, planned as a dental clinic, with all the equipment required for it, allied to the Infirmary and the Medical School, helping the poor and training for the profession skilled dentists. There are few things in connection with education and public health in Yorkshire which have a stronger claim upon the generosity of those who are willing to use their wealth for the furtherance of the public good than the putting up of such a building.'

The new building (1928)

It was decided to build a new dental hospital on a site within the grounds of the Leeds General Infirmary. The Dental Board of the United Kingdom agreed, in February 1924, to make a grant of £5000 to the Leeds School. These grants were seen as inducements to universities to invest in dental education. The Infirmary promised a site valued at £8000, the dental staff promised £2000. The University allocated £22,000 and so carried the major expenditure of the building, which eventually cost £45,000.

The plans for the new building were put out to tender in December 1925 and work began in June 1926. (Fig. 8) The opening of the new building on 16 March 1928 by Mr J.H. Whittey MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, was an occasion of great pride and ceremony. Amongst the principal guests were Sir Francis Dyke Ackland, Chairman of the Dental Board, the Vice Chancellor, the Lord Mayor of Leeds and the Chairman of the Infirmary Board, Sir Berkley-Moynihan.¹¹ (Fig. 9) The building proved a fitting venue for the Annual Meeting of the British Dental Association which was held in Leeds in the summer of 1928, when Charles Rippon was elected President of the BDA. In his presidential address he chose to describe himself as a dental teacher.¹⁵ He was the only person connected with Leeds Dental School in the first 30 years of its existence to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to dentistry. In presenting Mr Rippon for his Honorary Doctorate, to celebrate the opening of the new Dental School and Hospital, Professor Jamieson said:

Figure 8

Photograph of the New Dental School Building, Blundell Street 1928 (from the British Dental Journal)

Figure 9

Official Opening of the Leeds School of Dentistry, March 1928 (from the Yorkshire Post)

'Mr Charles Rippon filled the post of lecturer in dental mechanics for 21 years and in the whole of that time has been a strong support to the University in its progress towards the establishment of a complete dental school. His high repute in the dental profession is indicated by his election to the office of President of the British Dental Association. We desire to mark our agreement with the mind of the profession and to express our gratitude for his valuable and faithful loyalty of a genial and wise colleague.'

Dr Rippon died in 1929¹⁶ and made a gift of £100 to endow an undergraduate prize — The Charles Rippon Medal. Fig. 10

Figure 10

Dr Charles Rippon, President, BDA 1928

The appointment of the first Professor of Clinical Dental Surgery at Leeds

As the new building neared completion, attention switched to its staffing needs. Once again the Dental Board of the United Kingdom played a vital role. The possibility of a Board grant of £500 towards staff salaries at Leeds was reported to the relevant Committee in December 1929. The Committee on Honoraria of Dental Staff had in mind to appoint a full time Director, who would have the status of professor, but that in the light of his salary of £1000 a year he would not be allowed to undertake private practice. Following an advertisement in the British Dental Journal four applicants were invited to attend for interview on 12 June 1931. Mr T. Talmage Read was the unanimous choice of the Committee.¹⁷ The Dental Board's contribution to Leeds University came at a crucial time in the development of the Leeds Dental School.

Professor Thomas Talmage Read

Warden 1931–1959

Talmage Read was born in Glasgow on 22 November 1893. His father was a company director and his mother a highlander from the Macmillan clan. He was educated at Shawlands Academy and Glasgow High School, and undertook his medical and dental education at Glasgow University and Royal Infirmary and the Middlesex Hospital, with a period in Dublin studying gynaecology. He proved to be an outstanding student, gaining prizes in a great many subjects. Read's dental career included a period of private practice with his three brothers in Glasgow. He was appointed Visiting Dental Surgeon and Assistant Lecturer in Pathology and Bacteriology at Glasgow Dental Hospital. He was also active in dental politics, acting as Secretary of the Glasgow Odontological Society, Secretary of the West of Scotland Branch of the British Dental Association and a member of the Association's national Representative Board. He took up his appointment at the age of 38 years, and devoted the rest of his clinical and academic career to Leeds Dental School.

In 1948, with the passing of the NHS Act, the dental hospital became part of the United Leeds Hospitals. The number of patients seen increased steadily, as did the number of students accepted in the school. It became obvious to Professor Read and his colleagues that a major extension to the Blundell Street premises was required to accommodate an extended children's department. Eventually a plan was drawn up for a building in the yard at the rear of the hospital, which would be the full height of the existing building. Building work on the extension started in July 1950. Delays occurred because of an inadequate labour force, slow delivery of materials and frequent revisions of departmental layouts. The extension was completed in the summer of 1953.¹⁸ In total the hospital then had 78 dental chairs. (Fig. 11)

Figure 11

Extension to the Blundell Street Building 1953

Professor Read held the post of Professor of Clinical Dental Surgery, and warden of the Dental School and Hospital, until his retirement in 1959, a total of 28 years. When he took up his appointment in 1931, a professor of dental surgery was expected to be both an effective practitioner and teacher in all branches of dentistry, although his special interest was oral surgery. During the Second World War he was responsible for setting up a maxillofacial unit in St James' Hospital in Leeds.

Talmage Read married in 1950 at the age of 57 years, Miss Pamela Robinson, and two boys and two girls were born in the next 10 years. His family became the major focus of his interests. He was also keen on golf and was an active member of Alwoodley Golf Club, establishing the Walter Marston Golf Competition in 1935. He died suddenly at home on 12 January 1974, aged 80 years.

In his obituary in the British Dental Journal in 1974, one of his former students, Mr D.J. Bielby, paid this tribute:¹⁹

'He reigned at a time when there was only one professor in the dental school. He was a working leader. His surgical dexterity was a ceaseless wonder to those of us newly introduced to the theatre .... The lecture theatre allowed him to exercise the full scope of his vast clinical knowledge, scholarship, felicity of expression and appealing humour. But perhaps his lasting fame, among undergraduates, was founded ultimately in his celebrated teaching clinics. He taught in a gentle manner. Persuasion and patience unfailingly drew hesitant answers from faltering students.

Professor Hopper also referred to Professor Read's 'characteristic style of lecturing, with its slow but not lethargic delivery, which allied to his undoubted histrionic talents, maintained the rapt attention of his audience as he enlivened his address with the occasional idiosyncratic aside or humorous interjection.' He continued:

'His views on dental education of necessity reflected an older attitude and approach, as he sincerely believed that it was for the benefit of the profession and of dental education in Leeds that he should be responsible for all aspects of dentistry practised in the dental hospital which would no longer be considered appropriate today.'¹⁹

These words, written in 1974, perhaps reflected the size of the challenge Freddie Hopper faced when he was appointed in 1959.

Professor Frederick Ernest Hopper

Dean of the School 1959–1985

Freddie Hopper was born in Newcastle in 1919, the eldest of four boys. He went to King's College, Newcastle, affiliated to Durham University, where he graduated with distinction in 1943. He obtained his FDS from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1948, and his Mastership in Dental Surgery in 1958. (Fig. 12) He was a Lecturer in Periodontal Diseases at the Dental School in Newcastle before being appointed Professor of Dental Surgery and Dean of the School of Dentistry at this University in 1959, a post he held for 26 years.

Figure 12

Professor F.E. Hopper, Dean 1959–1985 (photograph taken in the late 1970s)

He was, first and foremost, a big man, with a booming voice and a commanding presence. He was an extremely confident person, a bon viveur, an extrovert who was a good judge of character. He came to a school, which in 1959 had one professor and seven full-time staff, working in a building which was in urgent need of development. Apart from an extension built on the rear in 1952, little had been done to improve facilities since the building was opened in 1928. When Professor Hopper asked the hospital finance officer for £7000 for urgent replacements and renewals, he was allocated £400 and told that it was four times greater than had ever been allocated in the past. The dental school at Leeds in 1959 was at a low ebb. It had suffered from under funding and difficulties in obtaining the most modern equipment, a legacy of the Second World War. The forthcoming Robbins Report on the expansion of universities provided a great challenge for universities such as Leeds to expand and improve their facilities and their reputation. Leeds wanted a new medical school and it was Freddie Hopper in particular who had to ensure that a suitable dental school was included in the plans. His vision, to which he dedicated the whole of his professional life, was to build up Leeds to be one of the best dental schools in the country. Freddie Hopper toured the world looking at existing dental schools and conversing with architects on the design of the new building. The foreword to the Planning design book, published in 1965, signed by Sir Donald Kaberry, Chairman of the Board of Governors, The United Leeds Hospitals, and Sir Roger Stevens, Vice-Chancellor, Leeds University, gives an indication of the thinking behind the redevelopment programme:²⁰

'Since the foundation of the University of Leeds, the Medical School has been an integral part of it. The effective development of hospital services and medical teaching in recent years owes much not only to the ready co-operation of the United Leeds Hospitals and the University, but to the relationship established between these bodies and the Leeds Regional Hospital Board. This co-operation has been nowhere more evident than in the plans made for the redevelopment of the General Infirmary, the Hospital for Women, the Maternity Hospital, the Medical School and the Dental Hospital and School. The urgent need to rebuild the hospitals, so that modern medicine may be practised in a modern environment has received added impetus from the demand to expand facilities for the training of medical and dental students and for research.

'The Board of Governors and the University Council took what is probably the unique opportunity in this country of re-planning the Teaching Hospitals and Schools on a site adjoining the University. Such a development will strengthen the links, not only between the Teaching Hospitals and Schools, but between the School and the University as a whole.'

The architects and engineers of the Building Design Partnership worked on the project for many years, before detailed plans for the Dental School and Hospital were made public in the early 1970s. They were not well received in some quarters. It was felt that whilst space requirements had been reasonably covered, circulation space left much to be desired. However, the die was cast and building work started, but did not keep pace with the proposed schedule. The new building was due to open in December 1977, but the transfer of the dental hospital into the new building on Clarendon Way occurred in the week beginning 3 July 1978 and the first patients were seen on 17 July 1978. Freddie Hopper had battled for 20 years to ensure that the new Leeds Dental School was designed, resourced and built. (Fig. 13) It was officially opened by HRH the Duke of Kent on 23 March 1979.²¹ Professor Hopper had been the centre of all the decision making concerning the new building. (Figs 14 and 15)

Figure 13

The new Worsley Building, 1979

Figure 14

Official Opening of the new Dental School Building, Clarendon Way 1979 by HRH the Duke of Kent

Figure 15

News of the Official Opening, Yorkshire Post, 24 March 1979

Professor Hopper and the General Dental Council

The first nominated member from Leeds University when the General Dental Council was instituted in 1956 was Professor Talmage Read. When he retired in 1959 Professor Freddie Hopper became the nominated member and served the Council for 26 years. His national contribution can be gauged from the President's Address to the General Dental Council in May 1986. (Fig. 16)

Figure 16

Professor F.E. Hopper, Portrait, 1985

'Professor Hopper has been a member of most committees of the Council, but it is on the Education Committee for the past 15 years, the last seven as chairman, that his major contribution has been made. Although his service in the very important field of dental education is long, it is the quality of that service and the energy with which he applied himself which are of particular note. He played a major role in the revision of the Council's Recommendations concerning the Dental Curriculum in 1980 and 1985 and was subsequently heavily involved in the Council's new responsibility for postgraduate education.

'His influence has been marked in the wider field of dental education, notably in the European Economic Community. He has never spared himself in his public work and both the dental profession and, more importantly, the general public, have much for which to be grateful to him. His contributions have always been robust and rumbustious. They were never lacking in variety or humour and more than once he has made his point to us in Latin verse.' ²²

Although Freddie was so often seen as 'the leader, the man of action' there were other aspects to his character. He was very supportive of his wife Gudrun when she returned to her dental career and delighted when she became President of the British Society of Dentistry for the Handicapped. Roy Storer told me that when he went with Freddie on a GDC visitation to Singapore and New Zealand, Freddie was in his element, sociable, talkative, pacing up and down, dictating his observations into a tape recorder, but also, in the quieter moments, reflecting on his parents and family, with great tenderness. He remembered in particular his youngest brother who died of tuberculosis in his 20s. A hard exterior often concealed a kind, caring nature. When he retired in 1985, the School had a complement of five professors and 33 academic staff, a far cry from what he had inherited in 1959.

Freddie Hopper was a man who lived for his work. A man who was astute, tough and courageous in fighting for what he believed in, and who was immensely proud of his association with Leeds, Newcastle and Norway. He will be remembered for his sharp brain, quick humour and love of life. He was never precious with himself, hardly had a day off work, but sadly in his retirement illness began to strike. He died suddenly at home on 5 December 1997.

Leeds Dental Institute 1986–2004

The first 82 years saw six Deans: Margetson, Marston, Hey, Thorburn, Read and Hopper, although Read and Hopper reigned for 55 years. The following 18 years have seen three Deans: Professor Robin Basker, Professor Bill Hume and most recently Dr Margaret Kellett.

Professor Robin Basker succeeded Professor Hopper as Leeds University's nominee in 1986. He also served the GDC with distinction, especially on the Education Committee, which he chaired from 1995 to 1998. It was under his chairmanship that the first edition of The first five years was published in 1997.²³ (Fig. 17)

Figure 17

Professor Robin Barker, Dean 1985–1991, Professor William Hume, Dean 1991–2003, Dr Margaret Kellett, Dean 2003–, Mr Paul Cook, Chairman, GDC Education Committee 2004

Professor Bill Hume then became Dean and the nominated member on the GDC from 1998 to 2002 and made important contributions to the development of dental education in his position as chairman of Deans of Dental Schools for a number of years, and he represented dentistry on the Joint Medical Advisory Committee of the Higher Education Funding Council. It was Bill more than anyone else, who pointed out the crisis facing clinical academics, particularly in dentistry. (Fig. 17)

Dr Margaret Kellett was appointed Dean of the Dental Institute in October 2003. (Fig. 17)

Mr Paul Cook was elected to the Council in 2001. He was elected Chairman of the Education Committee in 2004, thus continuing the impressive record that Leeds University Dental School has concerning its contribution to the GDC and most especially to the Education Committee. (Fig. 17)

Conclusion

So now we reach 100 years of dental education in Leeds. The Leeds Dental Institute is part of a major civic university, embedded in a medical/dental school complex, yet sited on the university campus. It is very close to the centre of the city, ensuring good access for patients, part of an NHS Trust providing quality medical and dental care, to the highest national and international standards. It has the opportunity to engage in research with colleagues in the bio-medical sciences. These opportunities should be nurtured and built upon for the next hundred years. Time for another surge forward!