TRIBUTES have been paid to a former Weymouth GP.

Dr John Cox died on September 22 at a care home in Glasgow where he had relocated recently to be near his daughter.

The father-of-five worked at Carlton Road South and Holly Road surgeries from 1972, continuing to do locum work in the town after retiring in 1988.

Before coming to Weymouth in 1972 Dr Cox worked as a GP in North Wales and Blackpool but son David said it was in Dorset that he was happiest and where he and GP wife Irene , also a GP, settled and brought up their five children.

In his spare time, Dr Cox was a keen golf player and a member at the Came Down Golf Club member until a few years ago.

David remembers many stories his father told of life as a GP.

He said: “He often told the tale of when, newly arrived in Weymouth, one dark, wet, autumnal night, he was slowly driving through the town looking for a patient’s address (no sat navs then) when, looking up suddenly, alarmed, he found himself facing an on-coming inter-city train heading straight towards him.

“These were the days when the Waterloo-Channel Islands Boat Train was a regular sight snaking its way through to the town’s quay at all hours.”

In another anecdote, Dr Cox was called to see a sick lady on a cold, wet night.

He knocked on the door and let himself in. The husband, shaving at the bottom of the stairs, greeted him and said his wife was upstairs in bed.

The GP knocked on the bedroom door at the top of the stairs and went in. “Hello my dear” he said, putting down his medical bag beside the bed, as the lady set aside the magazine she was reading.

The busy GP gently pulled down the bedclothes and carefully rested his hands on her stomach.

David said: “He asked her where the pain was, and she replied ‘what pain, doctor?’, very sweetly and completely unconcerned. He was at the wrong address.

“He always said he was crimson with embarrassment at this point, made his apologies and left, passing the husband who was still shaving at the bottom of the stairs and wished him good night. Fortunately, they were patients of his.”

A memorial Mass for Dr Cox will be held at St Joseph’s Church, Star of the Sea , Stavordale Road, Weymouth at 12pm on Saturday, November 28. Any of Dr Cox’s friends, ex colleagues and ex patients are welcome to attend.