A FORMER GP who treated generations of people in neighbouring east Durham communities has died at the age of 84.

Family and friends, many of them former patients, attended the funeral of Dr Bill Brown, at St Cuthbert's Church, Peterlee.

On qualifying from Newcastle Medical School, he served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Orderly Corps, landing in France on D-Day and spending the rest of the Second World War in Italy.

After being demobbed, he joined Dr Porteous as a partner in his Easington Colliery practice in 1947.

It was the start of four decades dedicated to serving the people of Easington and Peterlee, which included the trauma of the Easington pit disaster of 1951, resulting in more than 80 deaths.

He went on to work in surgeries in nearby Peterlee, helping set up the town's first health centre.

It was later named The William Brown Centre in his honour.

In 1957, Dr Brown won the Charles Hastings Clinical Prize for research, resulting in the award of a doctorate in medicine.

The research concerned a viral infection which swept through Easington Colliery.

He retired in 1988 but his eldest son, Derek, followed in his footsteps, becoming senior practice partner.

Dr Brown was also a keen Rotarian and sportsman, and well-known in local cricket, football and golf circles.

In retirement he lived in Castle Eden but suffered ill-health in recent years.

He leaves a wife, Nell, who nursed him devotedly through his illness, his two sons, and grandchildren Simon and Sarah.