1927-2019

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Surgeon Rear-Admiral (Dentist) Frank Mathias died aged 92. After two years at Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, 1952-53, Mathias was called up for National Service, but given the variety of challenging appointments available he soon decided to make the Navy his full career.

One of these challenges came in 1954-55 while serving in Hong Kong. Mathias volunteered to take dental aid in to the New Territories. Using a foot powered drill, dentistry was conducted in outlying villages, often in the open but sometimes in the luxury of a temple or schoolroom.

Another experience came in 1963, when the aircraft carrier Centaur heard that the Greek cruise ship Lakonia had caught fire off Morocco. When, after twelve hours steaming at 27 knots, Centaur arrived at the disaster, some fourteen ships were involved in search and rescue and had taken onboard 900 survivors. After 55 corpses were recovered from the sea, Mathias set to work on the flight deck to make a full dental record of each body. The corpses were landed at Gibraltar on Christmas Day. On the same deployment, Mathias assisted at operations on casualties of the Tanganyika mutiny.

Before he joined Centaur, he also qualified in anaesthetics, but during his first operation was alarmed to find that his patient was deteriorating, while the senior surgeon put down his instruments to stand in the corner of the operating theatre with his head bowed. Told that the surgeon was praying, Mathias told him in direct language to get back to the operation and he could do his praying once the patient had been saved.

Frank Russell Bentley Mathias was the youngest of nine children born to a family solicitor in Narberth, Pembrokeshire. He was educated at Narberth Grammar School, from where he won a place at Guy's Hospital.

Mathias was always great company. With a quick wit and sharp mind, every meeting with him was spontaneous and warm, littered with his fascinating reminiscences, astute observations and sage advice. He was the first naval dentist to be made an Officer Brother of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (1981) and as the Director of Naval Dental Services, he was HM the Queen's Honorary Dental Surgeon 1982-85.

He married Joy Daniels in 1954 who predeceased him in 2018, and he is survived by a daughter, and his son who became a submariner and a Rear Admiral.

Peter Hore