Blue plaque honours pioneering GP

bmj;381/apr19_3/p869/FAF1faBert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/GettyMore than 50 years after his death, the life of the influential GP Cecil Belfield Clarke has been marked by a blue plaque near the site of his medical practice in south London.Clarke, shown here with a patient at his surgery in 1949, was born in Barbados in 1894. After winning a scholarship he travelled to England in 1914, just after the outbreak of the first world war, to study medicine at Cambridge University. After completing his training at University College Hospital, in 1923 Clarke opened a medical practice near Elephant and Castle, south London, where he worked for nearly 50 years, including during the Blitz, when most of the neighbourhood was bombed. In 1936 Clarke became a district medical officer.In the 1954 Clarke was elected to the BMA’s council as representative for the West Indies and served until 1967 two years after he retired from practice.As…
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