As tributes flood in for Dr Ian Bagshaw MBE, PETER BARRON, a fellow resident of Hurworth-on-Tees, looks back on the life of a man who made his mark locally and internationally
A TRUSTED, reassuring figure, ready to respond to a call-out at any hour of day or night. If anyone personified the traditional, community GP, it was Ian Bagshaw.
No wonder so many tributes have been paid to Dr Bagshaw – retired GP and community stalwart in the village of Hurworth-on-Tees – since the sad news of his death, at 83.
His impact on Hurworth was profound. Not just as the local doctor, but as someone who quietly but effectively embedded himself into village life, always with the aim of helping others.
“To him, being a GP was much more than a job – it was a vocation and a way of life,” says his daughter Fiona. “It was never a question of counting the hours, he was on call all the time. That was just how it was.”
Ian Bagshaw was born in Leeds but didn’t come from a medical background. His father was an insurance salesman, his mother did administrative work, and Ian had two younger sisters, Joanna and Caroline.
As a teenager, attending the local youth club, he met his future wife, Victoria, granddaughter of Britain’s first Labour prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald.
Young Ian was a boy scout, the recipient of The Queen’s Scout Award, while Victoria was an equally proud girl guide.
Victoria’s parents were doctors, and it was medicine that Ian chose to study after leaving Harrogate Grammar School and heading to Glasgow University, while his future wife read biology, not too far away, at Edinburgh.
To help finance his studies, Ian joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and, after graduating in 1968, he was appointed medical officer with the 9th/12th Royal Lancers, at Catterick Garrison.
That was followed by a move to the Royal Engineers, in Kent, before he joined the training regiment of the Gurkhas, in Hong Kong, in 1974, and then the 7th Gurkha Rifles, in Brunei, three years later.
It was while serving in Brunei that his work took him into the makeshift camps set up to care for the Vietnamese boat people, who’d fled at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. It was the kind of dedication beyond the call of duty that earned Dr Bagshaw the MBE in 1979.
Doctors Mark and Eva Robson had taken over the village practice in 1968, converting a scullery at the back of a house overlooking the village green into a surgery, with a cramped waiting room, heated by an electric bar fire.
When Eva retired in 1983, Ian was persuaded to join Mark as a partner at the practice. And when Mark retired a year later, Ian was joined by Dr Gillian Williams.
The surgery behind the doctor’s house was never going to meet the needs of a growing village, and an opportunity arose when the Brothers of the Order of St John vacated Rockliffe Hall and built the Rockliffe Court development of bungalows to house residents with special needs.
A plot of land became available, and Drs Bagshaw and Williams secured it for a modern, spacious surgery to be built. Opened on October 28, 1989, by Lady Masham of Ilton, it was initially run by Drs Bagshaw and Williams, with Victoria as practice manager.
Dr Bagshaw, a throwback to a different era, reluctantly retired in 2011 when he reached 70. However, he didn’t give up work completely, continuing to support the Army with the medical testing of recruits, and his distinguished career was recognised when he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of GPs.
His community activities also continued to have a major impact. Through his love of nature and walking, he was chairman of Darlington CHA & HF Rambling Club, as well as the organiser of healthy walks from his home village.
“He always felt closer to God when he was walking in the hills and close to nature,” says Victoria.
His support of village projects included managing the Hurworth Rogers Charitable Trust, which gives grants to local worthy causes, and being president of Hurworth Theatre Group. Many other community contributions were deliberately kept under the radar.
“When we first came to Hurworth, we were outsiders, but now I can’t think of anyone who was more part of the village – he loved it,” says Fiona.
Dr Bagshaw was also a great supporter of the Gurkha Welfare Trust, organising annual fundraising music concerts at the Dolphin Centre, in Darlington, and supporting projects in Nepal, including helping to fund roof repairs, toilet facilities, and furniture for schools.
Tributes have flooded in since his death in hospital after a period of illness robbed him of his mobility. The Hurworth Live Facebook site attracted scores of messages about his dedication, and cards have poured into the family home.
Rockliffe Court Surgery issued a statement, saying: “Dr Bagshaw is remembered with great fondness by all who were lucky enough to work with him. His care and commitment to the Hurworth community were second to none and set high standards for general practice at the surgery.”
My wife and I settled in Hurworth in 1987, raising our own four children in the village, and we are among countless families who are indebted to him for his care, wisdom, and responsiveness. He gave us and our fellow villagers the confidence that we were in safe hands.
“He had to work hard for everything he achieved, and he was a devoted family man,” says Fiona. “But he was also a very private man, so many people didn’t realise how ill he was. He’d been such a strong, fit, healthy person, so it was hard for him when that was no longer the case.”
Dr Bagshaw’s funeral will take place at 12 noon on Sunday, October 6, at St Peter’s Church in Croft-on-Tees. It's a mile down the road from Hurworth, and, crucially, on the North Yorkshire side of Croft Bridge.
Despite his love of Hurworth, he was intensely proud of his Yorkshire roots, and always wanted to end up back in the county one day. Three benches in his memory will also be donated to Kiplin Hall, one of his favourite places to visit in North Yorkshire.
“He was a wonderful man with a natural instinct for caring about people,” says Victoria.
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“The family put up with a lot, with the phone ringing all the time, and seeing him rushing out of the house at all hours – but we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
Lucky that he crossed the border into County Durham, Hurworth's a healthier place for having become home to Dr Ian Bagshaw.
Rest in peace.
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