1923–2015

Athiel King was born on the 4 January 1923, in Barbados, West Indies, the son of a shopkeeper, Edwin King and Alice Gaskin, his mother, who died when he was two years old. He was one of four children. His early adult years were spent as a school teacher before he left for the United Kingdom at the age of 20, journeying by ship to Liverpool to join the Royal Air Force as a radar technician. He served at various bases in the South West of England, until the end of World War II. During his time in the RAF, at a service at St Pauls Cathedral, he met his future wife, Ruth, who had come to the UK from Tobago in the West Indies to study midwifery. They eventually married in May 1950.

After leaving the RAF, Athiel worked in the civil service and local government for several years. He used his spare time to study for A-levels, as he was determined to study dentistry. After a number of disappointments, he finally received his chance when he was offered a place at University College Hospital, London by the late Professor Prophet in 1964, at the mature age of 41. He excelled at his studies, and won the year medal awarded to the best student in conservative dentistry.

After gaining his LDS and BDS, Athiel worked a number of sessional dental posts, until establishing a dental practice, in Balham, in South London. In 1970, Athiel started a dental practice in the family home in Wallington, Surrey where he lived and continued to practice for the next thirty years. Athiel returned to University College Hospital in 1980 as a part-time clinical demonstrator in the restorative department, where he enjoyed sharing his practical skills and teaching dental students.

Athiel had a passion for West Indies cricket, a fondness for Country Life magazine and motor racing and an enduring devotion to Jaguar cars – his first, a Mark IX, bought in 1967. He died in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, Somerset on the 6 October 2015, aged 92, after a short illness. Having lost his wife, Ruth, after forty-five years of marriage in 1995, Athiel is survived by his sons, Philip and Adrian, grand-daughters, Monica and Hannah, and great grand-daughter, Chloe.

Athiel will be greatly missed by his friends and family and by the many patients who travelled many miles to see him, even after he moved his practice. He loved his profession, and always remained grateful to those who gave him the opportunity to join it, and he remained a member of the British Dental Association until the final year of his life.