Obituary: JRR Tolkien's GP Dr John Clubb of Oxford

John Clubb honed his skills in the furnace of the Second World War treating wounds caused by German bombs, and watched as the ‘miracle’ drug penicillin transformed medicine forever.

He founded his own practice in Oxford and was also a founder member of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

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John Clubb was born in Ladbrook Grove, London, on October 5, 1923, to Marjorie and William Clubb. He had one sister, Heather, with whom he remained very close throughout his life.

As a schoolboy, he loved science and mechanics, and invented systems at home to turn off lights and open and close curtains.

On his last day at school he and his peers asked their science teacher if they could make a bomb, which they managed with great success and singed eyebrows.

At Dulwich College, shortly after the Second World War broke out, the young John was asked to assist the headmaster in working the telephones during the air raids, while all the other pupils were whisked to safety in the air raid shelters.

St Paul's Cathedral, London, during the Blitz.

He went on to serve in the Territorial Army, and would later regale his family with accounts of the Blitz.

One day, when he was feeding rabbits and chickens at the bottom of his garden in Turney Road, he saw a German bomber flying so low he could see the pilots wearing pale brown uniforms and see their faces.

They dropped a bomb which landed in playing fields at back of the garden, and he dropped to the ground.

All the windows in the house were broken and when he stood up a mouse ran up his trousers.

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Leaving school, he went on to study medicine at Kings College, London, where he met his future wife Elizabeth Thomas, and fell deeply in love with her. It was a love that was to last a lifetime.

During the war, as a medical student, he treated the injured, removing shrapnel, stitching and bandaging their wounds.

In 1947 he witnessed the wonders of recently introduced penicillin, and watched with much satisfaction as patients responded to the new ‘miracle cure’.

Dr and Mrs Clubb married at Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon, on February 28, 1948, then moved to Oxford and together bought the practice in 58 Holloway, Cowley.

Hollow Way Medical Centre today. Picture: Google Maps

A little later they joined Dr Robert Harvard in partnership working in practices in Headington and at 44 St Giles.

The joint practice grew until it was the largest in Oxford, with around 15,000 patients.

Among them were Professor JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and Graham Greene.

Dr Clubb and Dr Havard both joined meetings of Tolkien and Lewis’s famous literary group The Inklings at the Eagle and Child pub in St Giles, just a few doors down from their surgery.

Dr Clubb’s family said he may well have been the last living person to have joined the famous group.

During those years, Dr Clubb also enjoyed being chairman of the MIA and played an active role in helping to secure good pensions for many nurses and secretarial staff working in medical practices across the UK.

As well as raising considerable funding for charity, Dr and Mrs Clubb were founder members of the Royal College of General Practitioners, and were honoured at a celebration in 2001.

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They also had five children together – Catherine, Cecilia, Marianne, David and Felicity – 14 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren.

Dr Clubb was also asked to be a magistrate in 1970 and served for several decades.

In total Dr Clubb worked as a GP in Oxford for 58 years. His family said he was always committed to his patients and was much loved by them for his care and kindness.

He died on March 6, partly due to a heart condition, and was buried at Sunningwell church.