Tony graduated from Durham University in 1967 and spent six years in general practice in Belper, Derbyshire before joining the Royal Army Dental Corps in which he served for 16 years before taking premature voluntary retirement in 1989 in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He decided to go back into general practice for four years before being appointed to the Dental Reference Service in which he worked for a further fourteen years, eventually retiring from dentistry in 2007.

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He was on the specialist list of periodontologists and for several years was the specialist in periodontology to the army while stationed in Germany. He was an examiner for the Faculty of General Dental Practice from 1991 to 2002, and the chief presiding examiner for the overseas faculties in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. He was an examiner for the National Examining Board for Dental Nurses for 21 years and chairman of the Oral Health Examining Board, as well as a member of the core croup of the Faculty of Dental Surgery for London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin and Cork from 2002 to 2008.

Tony embraced the maxim of never being too old to learn, always endeavouring to better himself professionally for the good of his patients and the profession for which he worked. He was never afraid to be outspoken when he knew the cause was right, a trait which may not always have been appreciated by his military bosses. He became worried in the 1980s when the army seemed to be holding back from making a mandatory policy on vaccinating dental teams against hepatitis B, and on this occasion his lobbying was heard and the appropriate action taken.

You could not fail to know when Tony was around, he had a very recognisable laugh and a wicked sense of humour; it was always fun to be in his company. He loved being with people and discovering their interests and life stories. Tony had many other attributes away from dentistry, the profession he loved and excelled in. He was an avid collector of books, coins, stamps, Victorian ceramic toothpaste pots and gin. In addition, he often had a number of conjuring tricks up his sleeve with which he would entertain friends and family, producing coins from ears, pulling handkerchiefs from nowhere and catching invisible balls in paper bags with the accomplished flick of the wrist.

He will be sadly missed by all those of us who had the privilege of knowing Tony and especially by his wife Doreen, his children Nick, Mark and Sarah, and all other members of his family.

By James Hardy