Dr Jim and Dr June Davey Alan Payne & Griselda, Anne and Clare (the Davey daughters)
Photos Davey family except where marked, May 2020
Photos Davey family except where marked, May 2020
After the Second World War it took a while for social life to return and, when it did, it was different to all that had gone before. A number of families took the initiative to build a better village in the 1950s, headed by a new village meritocracy. Many of these were figures of responsibility – the new vicar Rev Tom Selwyn-Smith, Phil and Mary Lambert who enthused the scouts and Bingham Hall dances, and Alec Cogswell and Ken Boulton who organised sport in Box. It isn’t possible to mention all the people but notable amongst these leaders were Doctors Jim and June Davey, newcomers to the village in 1950, who became vital to the new order, dispensing medical advice under the National Health arrangements and taking an active part in village life.
Dr Jim (Charles James Constantine Davey) and Dr June (Gwyneth June Pearson) were born in the Midlands in 1924. Jim attended Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire and June attended Edgbaston High School, Birmingham. They both applied successfully for Medicine at Birmingham University in 1942 and qualified as doctors (MB ChB) in 1947. There were few trainees during the Second World War and one of their voluntary duties during wartime was fire spotting on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. They married in June 1948 at Christ Church, Gillott Road, Edgbaston and, after qualification, Jim did his national service at Catterick, near Richmond, Yorkshire.
Jim and June were keen to move to Wiltshire and, after serving as a locum in General Practice in Chippenham, Jim found a position in Box in 1950. Dr Thomas William Ramsden Strode (1886-1958) was looking for a partner to join him in his practice at 1 Kingston Villas, High Street, Box, probably because of an increased volume of work two years after the inception of the National Health Service. On moving to Box, Jim and June and their one-year old daughter had to find somewhere to live. Leslie and Mitty Bence, who ran the grocer’s shop in the Market Place, kindly had the family as lodgers in their home at Lorne House until they decided where to go.
Settling in Box
Jim and June bought a field at the foot of Ashley Lane and built a house there which they named Ashley Croft on account of the animals that had been kept there at various times, such as sheep, ponies, geese, chicken and bantams. Building took a while but it was done in time for their second daughter’s arrival in 1952. The house was particularly loved by June, especially the sunny aspect of the back of the house with its view of Totney Firs. A third daughter arrived two years later making the family complete, Griselda, Anne and Clare.
In the 1960s Jim and June opened Ashley Croft house and garden for the church fete, advertised in the parish magazine of July 1969. The preparations included mowing, weeding, and clearing out neglected corners, and they have laid a complete drive for (the event).
Dr Jim (Charles James Constantine Davey) and Dr June (Gwyneth June Pearson) were born in the Midlands in 1924. Jim attended Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire and June attended Edgbaston High School, Birmingham. They both applied successfully for Medicine at Birmingham University in 1942 and qualified as doctors (MB ChB) in 1947. There were few trainees during the Second World War and one of their voluntary duties during wartime was fire spotting on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. They married in June 1948 at Christ Church, Gillott Road, Edgbaston and, after qualification, Jim did his national service at Catterick, near Richmond, Yorkshire.
Jim and June were keen to move to Wiltshire and, after serving as a locum in General Practice in Chippenham, Jim found a position in Box in 1950. Dr Thomas William Ramsden Strode (1886-1958) was looking for a partner to join him in his practice at 1 Kingston Villas, High Street, Box, probably because of an increased volume of work two years after the inception of the National Health Service. On moving to Box, Jim and June and their one-year old daughter had to find somewhere to live. Leslie and Mitty Bence, who ran the grocer’s shop in the Market Place, kindly had the family as lodgers in their home at Lorne House until they decided where to go.
Settling in Box
Jim and June bought a field at the foot of Ashley Lane and built a house there which they named Ashley Croft on account of the animals that had been kept there at various times, such as sheep, ponies, geese, chicken and bantams. Building took a while but it was done in time for their second daughter’s arrival in 1952. The house was particularly loved by June, especially the sunny aspect of the back of the house with its view of Totney Firs. A third daughter arrived two years later making the family complete, Griselda, Anne and Clare.
In the 1960s Jim and June opened Ashley Croft house and garden for the church fete, advertised in the parish magazine of July 1969. The preparations included mowing, weeding, and clearing out neglected corners, and they have laid a complete drive for (the event).
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Ashley Croft seen above in the 1970s left and in the 1980s right
Practising in the Village
For the first seven years Jim was on-call every night and weekend, employing a locum when they took a holiday. June helped with daytime work in the practice which she continued for 12 years. These were times shortly after the formation of the National Health Service and there was a considerably increased workload with treatment free at the point of delivery and a fuller range of services after wartime austerity. Matters didn’t entirely turn out as planned and Dr Strode retired after a year, leaving Jim and June on their own. The first surgeries were conducted at Dr Strode’s private house, whilst still occupied by Thomas and his wife, Clarissa.
In 1958 Jim merged the practice with another local doctor, Dr Donald Taylor, and they did surgeries from a lock-up shop, later part of the building occupied by Miller’s Coaches and the Miller family, opposite Chapel Lane (the shop is now part of a private residence called Millers). Jim and Donald formed a partnership for five years with June as a one-fifth partner. Alternate nights and weekends became the rota for Jim and Donald.
Box’s First Health Centre
In 1960 Jim and Donald Taylor bought a plot of land to the east of the village on Box Hill as an initiative to create a health centre, then a new concept in medicine, providing a full range of care. The new surgery was purpose-built, a long, low building, quite limited with just a waiting room, a room each for Jim and Donald and a reception area, which at times was managed by Pattie Baldwin (nee Fudge), who kept all the paper files of patients. Myra Golding recalled: One day a week there was the baby clinic, where the babies were weighed and orange juice was given, they also had national dried baby milk. You could tell who was there by the prams that were parked outside, under a kind of shelter.
At the time there was no specific training for general practice, and June was as well-equipped as any doctor of the time for the role. Overall, June worked for twelve years in the practice but she also stepped in at a time when Jim was hospitalised. Her interest in medicine became concentrated in gynaecology and she and some colleagues became the founder members of a Family Planning Clinic in Bath. This was of course before abortion was legalised. Later her interest extended to sexually transmitted diseases and she also worked as a clinical assistant in Bristol.
Whilst June was at work, babysitters were obviously required. On Tuesday evenings and at other times Mrs Olive Currant fed the three girls and put them to bed. Help in the house was also provided by Mrs Margaret Currant who worked at Kingsmoor Children’s Home and, after some years, admitted that she was really a trained cook. Thereafter she provided the weekend fare, usually including steak and kidney pie and coffee cake, which were excellent.
Jim was a keen gardener, having a substantial vegetable plot, also fruit bushes and apple and pear trees elsewhere in the garden. Bill Webster was a faithful helper in the garden. One winter Jim and he dug out a swimming pool in the back garden where the three girls learnt to swim. As part of self-sufficiency, Jim and June kept hens, bantams and guinea fowl as well as having cats and dogs.
The doctor’s work at this time followed the pattern of early morning surgery (no appointments, just turn up and be seen in turn), home visits, home for lunch, having a snooze or finishing visits, maybe some gardening and then evening surgery (again no appointments) and any urgent visits requested. His children were expected to be in bed by the time he came home. At home there was an antiquated telephone exchange system to put calls through to the surgery or to Donald’s house. June was the purveyor of messages which often meant being tied to the house. Night visits were maybe one or two per week in the early days and were genuine emergencies. Despite his well-known geniality, towards the end of his career, Jim found the expectation of unreasonable, trivial advice to be unacceptable – such as telephone calls in the middle of the night saying I can’t sleep, to which he would respond with That now makes two of us.
The work was family-orientated, often caring for several generations of the same family, but more varied than perhaps nowadays. Jim was a car fiend and made the mistake of having a personalised number plate of his phone number, BOX 369. This had the inevitable effect of being stopped while on visits just to pop in and look at an injury or rash or whatever. Early on, Jim cared for birthing mothers at Bradford-on-Avon Maternity Home. He said his most hair-raising experience was helping another GP by giving open ether for anaesthesia for an emergency Caesarean Section. Although all was well on that occasion, he vowed never to do it again! Nevertheless, some of the home births were not easy, one night involving a trip to a caravan that had no running water or electricity to deliver a baby. Jim also used to give anaesthetics in a dental surgery in Corsham.
For the first seven years Jim was on-call every night and weekend, employing a locum when they took a holiday. June helped with daytime work in the practice which she continued for 12 years. These were times shortly after the formation of the National Health Service and there was a considerably increased workload with treatment free at the point of delivery and a fuller range of services after wartime austerity. Matters didn’t entirely turn out as planned and Dr Strode retired after a year, leaving Jim and June on their own. The first surgeries were conducted at Dr Strode’s private house, whilst still occupied by Thomas and his wife, Clarissa.
In 1958 Jim merged the practice with another local doctor, Dr Donald Taylor, and they did surgeries from a lock-up shop, later part of the building occupied by Miller’s Coaches and the Miller family, opposite Chapel Lane (the shop is now part of a private residence called Millers). Jim and Donald formed a partnership for five years with June as a one-fifth partner. Alternate nights and weekends became the rota for Jim and Donald.
Box’s First Health Centre
In 1960 Jim and Donald Taylor bought a plot of land to the east of the village on Box Hill as an initiative to create a health centre, then a new concept in medicine, providing a full range of care. The new surgery was purpose-built, a long, low building, quite limited with just a waiting room, a room each for Jim and Donald and a reception area, which at times was managed by Pattie Baldwin (nee Fudge), who kept all the paper files of patients. Myra Golding recalled: One day a week there was the baby clinic, where the babies were weighed and orange juice was given, they also had national dried baby milk. You could tell who was there by the prams that were parked outside, under a kind of shelter.
At the time there was no specific training for general practice, and June was as well-equipped as any doctor of the time for the role. Overall, June worked for twelve years in the practice but she also stepped in at a time when Jim was hospitalised. Her interest in medicine became concentrated in gynaecology and she and some colleagues became the founder members of a Family Planning Clinic in Bath. This was of course before abortion was legalised. Later her interest extended to sexually transmitted diseases and she also worked as a clinical assistant in Bristol.
Whilst June was at work, babysitters were obviously required. On Tuesday evenings and at other times Mrs Olive Currant fed the three girls and put them to bed. Help in the house was also provided by Mrs Margaret Currant who worked at Kingsmoor Children’s Home and, after some years, admitted that she was really a trained cook. Thereafter she provided the weekend fare, usually including steak and kidney pie and coffee cake, which were excellent.
Jim was a keen gardener, having a substantial vegetable plot, also fruit bushes and apple and pear trees elsewhere in the garden. Bill Webster was a faithful helper in the garden. One winter Jim and he dug out a swimming pool in the back garden where the three girls learnt to swim. As part of self-sufficiency, Jim and June kept hens, bantams and guinea fowl as well as having cats and dogs.
The doctor’s work at this time followed the pattern of early morning surgery (no appointments, just turn up and be seen in turn), home visits, home for lunch, having a snooze or finishing visits, maybe some gardening and then evening surgery (again no appointments) and any urgent visits requested. His children were expected to be in bed by the time he came home. At home there was an antiquated telephone exchange system to put calls through to the surgery or to Donald’s house. June was the purveyor of messages which often meant being tied to the house. Night visits were maybe one or two per week in the early days and were genuine emergencies. Despite his well-known geniality, towards the end of his career, Jim found the expectation of unreasonable, trivial advice to be unacceptable – such as telephone calls in the middle of the night saying I can’t sleep, to which he would respond with That now makes two of us.
The work was family-orientated, often caring for several generations of the same family, but more varied than perhaps nowadays. Jim was a car fiend and made the mistake of having a personalised number plate of his phone number, BOX 369. This had the inevitable effect of being stopped while on visits just to pop in and look at an injury or rash or whatever. Early on, Jim cared for birthing mothers at Bradford-on-Avon Maternity Home. He said his most hair-raising experience was helping another GP by giving open ether for anaesthesia for an emergency Caesarean Section. Although all was well on that occasion, he vowed never to do it again! Nevertheless, some of the home births were not easy, one night involving a trip to a caravan that had no running water or electricity to deliver a baby. Jim also used to give anaesthetics in a dental surgery in Corsham.
Jim on his retirement in 1984 (courtesy Chippenham Times and News
4 May 1984)
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Retirement The Box Surgery flourished because it could provide a whole range of medical services and Jim and Donald employed a third doctor, Dr John McQuitty who joined the practice in 1973. Jim had asked his son-in-law to join but, instead, he suggested Dr McQuitty who at the time was a GP trainee in Bath and lived in Colerne. Box Link set up by him and Jacky Nicholas has proved to be a lasting suceess. Sadly, John died in 1979 and Dr John Bullen then joined the surgery. Jim and June both retired at the same time in 1984. Jim had worked in Box for 34 years and June had completed 12 years in the village and 23 years in Bath. They went as locum family doctors for three months on the island of Barbuda off the coast of Antigua before returning to Box. Dr Kevin Gruffydd-Jones, their nephew-in-law, replaced Jim in the practice. |
By 1987 Box Surgery employed a total of 24 staff, with Dr Hannah Leydon having joined the practice when Donald Taylor retired in 1987. They also had a compliment of health visitors, four receptionists, a practice nurse and district nurses from the premises. In 1990 the old surgery was demolished and replaced by the present building on the same site on Box High Street.
Opening the new surgery in 1990 (courtesy Bath and Wilts Evening Chronicle, 12 July 1990)
Home Life
Jim and June came from homes where card games were played. Both were enthusiastic bridge players with Jim particularly playing at a club in Bath often gaining county points. At University Jim had been a keen hockey player. In Box he usually played golf twice a week becoming Captain at Kingsdown Golf Club; his lowest handicap, apart from his family, was 7. His doubles partner was usually Ken Swift, who lived at number 5 Mead Villas, husband of the Box Chemist pharmacist Esther Swift in the premises still occupied by the chemist shop. He was on the steering group that extended the course from 12 to 18 holes. The President of the Club was Sir Armand Northey and, after his death, Lady Northey. She nominated Jim to succeed her which he did and it became a family joke: Q: What did Jim have in common with Idi Amin? A: They were both Presidents for life - but Jim relinquished the Presidency before his death. In retirement Jim also played croquet at the club in Bath.
Jim and June were great supporters of village life in Box. Jim was on the Parochial Church Council and was Church Warden for a number of years. Most people who knew him recognised his sense of humour was an essential part of his character. Sometimes you never knew if he was being serious or had his tongue in his cheek. It was worse for the family who repeatedly fell for an ingenious leg-pull on April Fool’s Day. June took great delight in delivering the Parish Magazine round Ashley, combining mild exercise with the chance of a chat with neighbours. Jim used to love seeing wildlife, including a woodpecker, when it came into the garden. There was a pageant in Box Church which Jim was in. On his leather gloved hand, was perched a hawk; he was so thrilled by that.
Jim was born in 1924 died in Bath in 2001, which is believed to be the same year as Donald Taylor. June died in Birmingham in 2011. She had left Box in 2008, although in her mind she never left. Jim and June’s ashes are in Box cemetery facing the view they loved.
Jim and June came from homes where card games were played. Both were enthusiastic bridge players with Jim particularly playing at a club in Bath often gaining county points. At University Jim had been a keen hockey player. In Box he usually played golf twice a week becoming Captain at Kingsdown Golf Club; his lowest handicap, apart from his family, was 7. His doubles partner was usually Ken Swift, who lived at number 5 Mead Villas, husband of the Box Chemist pharmacist Esther Swift in the premises still occupied by the chemist shop. He was on the steering group that extended the course from 12 to 18 holes. The President of the Club was Sir Armand Northey and, after his death, Lady Northey. She nominated Jim to succeed her which he did and it became a family joke: Q: What did Jim have in common with Idi Amin? A: They were both Presidents for life - but Jim relinquished the Presidency before his death. In retirement Jim also played croquet at the club in Bath.
Jim and June were great supporters of village life in Box. Jim was on the Parochial Church Council and was Church Warden for a number of years. Most people who knew him recognised his sense of humour was an essential part of his character. Sometimes you never knew if he was being serious or had his tongue in his cheek. It was worse for the family who repeatedly fell for an ingenious leg-pull on April Fool’s Day. June took great delight in delivering the Parish Magazine round Ashley, combining mild exercise with the chance of a chat with neighbours. Jim used to love seeing wildlife, including a woodpecker, when it came into the garden. There was a pageant in Box Church which Jim was in. On his leather gloved hand, was perched a hawk; he was so thrilled by that.
Jim was born in 1924 died in Bath in 2001, which is believed to be the same year as Donald Taylor. June died in Birmingham in 2011. She had left Box in 2008, although in her mind she never left. Jim and June’s ashes are in Box cemetery facing the view they loved.
Conclusion
The headline photograph shows Jim and June as many people in Box remember them, smiling, friendly and sociable. They loved the village and Box residents adopted them as close friends and medical advisers. A sign of this was in January 1973 when a Christmas entertainment by a group called The Mangolds jested:
“Away out at Ashley lives our Doctor Jim.
When we’re feeling queer, we starts running to him
But be careful if he thinks that thee bist a fraud –
You may finish up in a surgical ward.”
It was a heart-felt tribute to the medical practitioners who took Box from a fee-paying doctor’s business to the free service available to everyone in the village who needed medical assistance.
The headline photograph shows Jim and June as many people in Box remember them, smiling, friendly and sociable. They loved the village and Box residents adopted them as close friends and medical advisers. A sign of this was in January 1973 when a Christmas entertainment by a group called The Mangolds jested:
“Away out at Ashley lives our Doctor Jim.
When we’re feeling queer, we starts running to him
But be careful if he thinks that thee bist a fraud –
You may finish up in a surgical ward.”
It was a heart-felt tribute to the medical practitioners who took Box from a fee-paying doctor’s business to the free service available to everyone in the village who needed medical assistance.