1931-2024

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John Brookman BDS, LDS, FCGDent, MGDS(Edin), FFGDP(UK)(Hon), one of the founding board members of the Faculty of General Dental Practice, and the founder of Vocational Training (VT) for GDPs, passed away peacefully on 27 January 2024, age 92.

Never wavering from his childhood desire to be a dentist, he qualified from the Royal Dental Hospital, London in 1954 with a career-long commitment to continuing education and postgraduate dental training. In 1957, he married Penny and worked as a GDP in Surrey. They had four children, Mark, Lucy, James and Claire. Early in the 1960s, he suffered a mental health breakdown and had to suspend his dental career. With support from friends and family he made a full recovery, during which he retrained as a teacher which proved to be a pivotal experience in his return to dentistry.

In 1970, John purchased a practice in Banstead, Surrey, expanding it to five full-time dentists with part-time associates and hygienists, serving a mix of NHS and private patients. In 1973, he became an assistant dental tutor for the British Postgraduate Medical Federation and from 1975 established the UK's first VT scheme for GDPs in Guildford, laying the foundation for nationwide VT, which became a statutory requirement in 1993. From 1975 he liaised with the University of Surrey, was a research lecturer at the Eastman Dental Institute, Senior Dental Advisor to Surrey Health Services and the Thames postgraduate regions, and had the Guildford PG Centre phantom head teaching laboratory named after him. He passed the Membership in General Dental Surgery examination, Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) of Edinburgh, achieved Fellowship of the Faculty of Dental Surgery, RCS England and was Chairman of the UK Conference of Dental Advisors. President of the BDA's Southern Counties branch and a founder editorial board advisor of The Dentist, he was regarded by those who knew him as a true gentleman, who alongside these professional accomplishments continued being active in numerous community commitments.

John and Penny retired to Cumbria in 1993 and he embraced life, enjoying fell walking and woodturning. They were both active members of the village church and his Christian faith was hugely important to him, shaping how he lived and worked. Sadly, Penny died from cancer in 2007. He continued to walk the fells well into his 80s and it would have meant the world to him that he was able to live out his life in the home he loved so much.

Mark Brookman and Claire Chesworth