GEOFF CLAYTON (1938-43) The Nineteenth of November 1956. St Mary’s Church, Wollaton Park, Nottingham. The marriage of Geoff Clayton with Shirley Ward. Geoff had just completed two house jobs at the Middlesex Hospital and Shirley had been a Staff Nurse there. They had first spotted each other over the ward steriliser when they were students at The Middlesex, and introduced later by David Findlay. Yes, you have guessed it a fellow student. Here we are in 2021 about to celebrate our 65th wedding anniversary. Helping us will be three children, five grandchildren, two greats and four in-laws. That is achievement enough. The rest is a humdrum account of the life and struggles of a young doctor and his nurse wife making their way. Geoff and his twin brother Ian joined their elder brother Derek at WHS in 1938. It was an austere place when compared with descriptions in House magazine today. They were austere times. Thankfully times change but people don’t seem to. Eastbourne College followed as it was near home in Sussex, beside the
sea and close to the South Downs. The School was evacuated to Radley when the Navy commandeered the place for a torpedo training school ‘HMS Marlborough’. We were far from the sea so the Thames had to do. Next National Service for two years based in Chichester, Catterick, Aldershot (RSM Brittain) and Lisburn with the Royal Signals. The demob suit had served me well since 1949 and has only recently been recycled! After several years at The Middlesex Hospital as a student and junior doctor, Geoff and Shirley set up home in a small semi-detached house in Kew from where they set out on numerous jobs. Geoff as an SHO at St Anthony’s Hospital in Cheam and then a turn as a pathologist at Kingston Hospital. Later he did a number of locums in the neighbourhood where he acquired a taste for General Practice and landed up as a Trainee in Putney. Shirley had several private nursing jobs, a time in the teashop in Kew Gardens and a turn at the Tao Clinic “two doors past Harrods madam”. A year or so passed in this way and then William appeared at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital. Another year or so, and it was Richard’s turn at home in Kew. It was
The Clayton boys on their 90th birthday on 28 August 2019, from left Shirley, Derek, Ian and Geoff.
HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 27
HOUSIAN NEWS
BEYOND THE SCHOOL GATES
