Popular GP’s funeral cortege to pass by Melton surgery

Dr Ronald Thew, who passed away last week aged 76, started working at the town practice 50 years ago and was a popular doctor with generations of local families.

Former colleagues will join family members and friends at his funeral at St Mary’s Church, in Melton, on January 6 at 1pm, with the hearse due to travel slowly past the Sage Cross Street surgery 15 minutes before it.

Dr Thew was born in Blackpool in February 1945 after his pregnant mother was evacuated from her home in Lewisham in London during the Second World War.

After two weeks on the north-west coast, they were able to return to south London, where Dr Thew lived for the whole of his childhood.

He chose attend Greenwich Grammar School because football was played there rather than rugby, even though it involved catching three buses to get there.

Dr Thew studied at St Bart’s Medical School in the capital and qualified in 1968.

He went onto work at Redhill Hospital, training in pediatrics, maternity and anaesthetics, before going into general practice in Wiltshire.

Dr Thew made the move to Melton in 1971 when he sought a bigger practice where he could use his acquired skills in anaesthetics and maternity in the local cottage hospitals as well as working as a GP.

Shortly after his arrival in the town, his interest and drive led him to become a trainer of future doctors, establishing Latham House as one of Leicestershire’s early training practices.

He later went on to teach at Leicester University, initially as an organiser and then as deputy director.

Dr Thew was always interested in the further development of Latham House and had the energy and vision to grasp the opportunities arising from government initiatives.

This led to the surgery being very successful in expanding the level of services available for the benefit of patients.

Dr Thew’s involvement and success in this area led him to work in the development of these services in other GP practices at regional level with the local primary care trust.

He cared passionately about the community he lived in and served as a member of Frisby Parish Council, chairing the council for a number of years.

Dr Thew leaves wife Kristina, who he married in Florence, Italy, in 2006. The couple had six grandchildren between them - Maddie and Sam in Australia, Charlie and Bea in Newcastle and Elena and Elijah in Leamington Spa.