1934-2022

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Dr Nuala Mary Brigid Mitzi Macey-Dare (always known professionally as Dr Mitzi Coyle) was born in Blackheath, London on 19 June 1934, the fourth of eight children of an Irish doctor, Dr Cecil Coyle (who was then the Medical Superintendent of the Fulham Hospital and went on to become the Medical Superintendent of the Whittington Hospital and also the President of the Hunterian Society) and Madge Day, an English nurse (who had won the nursing Gold Medal as a student at the Mile End Hospital). She was educated at West Hill Preparatory School in Putney, followed by the Sacred Heart Convent (known as Beechwood) in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Mitzi studied dentistry at the Royal Dental Hospital, Leicester Square, where she won the Dolomore Prize and the Amalgamated Dental Scholarship. She was the first woman to be appointed a student demonstrator at the Royal Dental, where she later became a house surgeon.

Mitzi qualified in 1960 and spent a brief period in general dental practice. In February 1962, she married fellow dental surgeon Dr Barry Macey-Dare, whom she had met at the Royal Dental. She and her husband moved initially to East Horsley, followed by Guildford. After settling in Surrey, Mitzi entered the Surrey Community Dental Service, rising to Clinical Director and General Manager of Community Dentistry of the Surrey and Hampshire Borders NHS Trust. She was on the Specialist Register of paediatric dentists and obtained an MSc (London), the DDPH (Royal College of Surgeons) and an MBA (OU).

On retiring from general practice, Mitzi pursued a second career in Forensic Odontology, having obtained the Dip F Od and also an LLB. She worked mainly for the Surrey Coroner and was involved with several high-profile criminal cases, including identifying the body of the 13-year-old school girl, Millie Dowler, who went missing in September 2002.

Mitzi and her husband, Barry (who died in April 2021) were married for 59 years. She is survived by her five children - one of whom, Dr Lucy Macey-Dare, is a Consultant Orthodontist at the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - and 12 grandchildren.

By Edward Macey-Dare