Concordia

Concordia

Merchant Taylors’ School

I even owned

Monacle, an

amazing horse

that came

second at

Badminton in

1979 and was

selected for the

1980 Moscow

Olympic Games.

Summer

2015

Life in practice was wonderful. We built

a brilliant team, invested in the best of

equipment, worked ourselves to the bone,

did a multitude of post graduate courses

and after nearly four decades ended up with

a huge international reputation. I was also

an active City of London Barber Surgeon

and rebuilt the company library and helped

redesign the Gerard Herb Garden.

Implantology arrived and I was one

of the first to use it. Crown and Bridge

technology blossomed, bonding metal

to porcelain and later finding porcelains

strong enough to need no metallic

support and all the while I kept up the

oral surgery by operating in the evenings

in many of London’s private hospitals

often taking out wisdom teeth.

We began to do extensive oral

reconstructions on badly damaged

mouths, making major changes to

people’s lives. We could offer superb

aesthetics with the backing of the

Regent Dental Laboratory. The days of

inevitable full dentures, which we had all

been trained to make, were on their way

out. All these technical advances had

to be based on good dental hygiene so

I pioneered prevention too and in 1978

launched a new clinic in Devonshire

Place, near Harley Street, with two

other colleagues. It was called the Oral

Hygiene Centre and was the first of its

kind in the world. The idea was to provide

the services of a large team of Dental

Hygienists under the supervision of one

Dental Surgeon to make prevention the

priority and lower the cost of providing

better dental health.

Hygienists, I explained to the

politicians, are cheaper to train; they

require minimal equipment, and the

fear level for patients should be less too,

with no drilling. I imagined a worldwide

Oral Hygiene Centre franchise but the

dream was somewhat thwarted by both

politicians and the profession. In the

USA, where I also introduced the idea,

state laws only allowed hygienists to

work one to one with surgeons and under

their direct supervision. I think I was a

few years ahead of my time; most dentists

now have their own hygienists and I

believe they are the most important part

of any practice.

Not long after the start of my career

in 1972 I had been unfortunate enough

to experience synchronous bilateral

malignant seminoma and was advised

I might only have a short time to live.

It was only six months after my first

marriage to Sue. I was lucky enough to

be completely cured by two wonderful

surgeons and aggressive radiotherapy,

and while recovering I took up riding.

Sue and I bought a weekend cottage

in Wiltshire and I took to horses like a

duck to water, ending up riding one and

three day events. I even owned Monacle,

an amazing horse that came second at

Badminton in 1979 and was selected for

the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Sadly,

Mrs Thatcher asked our team to withdraw

as a protest against Russia’s occupation

of Afghanistan – somewhat ironic in

hindsight – but I still can’t live without

horses in my life.

But now it was 1987 and I suffered a

second setback. I contracted Hepatitis

B from a needle stick injury. Bright

yellow and feeling very ill my doctor

informed me that if I didn’t clear the virus

I wouldn’t be able to practice again! I

recovered, but during the 4 months away

from practice, I had taught myself how

to make sculpture. It is a similar hand-

eye skill to creating beautiful crowns in

dentistry. Rather than a dental laboratory

you use a foundry; rather than casting a

gold inlay you cast a bronze.

I had collected art for my home for

many years. Sue was a PA to a director at

Christie’s so I spent a lot of time in the

auction rooms just looking and acquiring

know-how. Earlier in my life my father

was awarded an FRPS as an amateur

photographer. He often let me help in

the dark room, developing and printing

black and white photographs and I can

well remember his first coloured print.

He had taught me to put objects on the

thirds in a photographic field and to view

a scene through a pin hole made with

my fingers before taking a photograph.

I had, without knowing it, developed a

seeing eye.

Later that year and fully recovered,

I was introduced to the Burleighfield

Foundry at Beaconsfield who began

to cast in bronze for me using the lost

wax technique. The directors there had

made Barbara Hepworth’s work and I

met Elizabeth Frink and Lynn Chadwick

(another OMT) and became surrounded

by great sculptors, many of whom

became friends.

I soon had the unique situation of

having a wonderful practice full of

interesting patients with my own art

works decorating the house and people

beginning to collect my work. Suddenly

commissions came flying in. I thought

about retiring from practice but I hadn’t

quite got the will to be a full-time

artist and what was happening suited

me well - I had the ideal day job and the

night time and weekend one too.

I remarried and my wife Auriol joined

me, designing and making sculpture.

Many of our heroic works were made

in partnership.

Portcullis and Crown at No 1 Parliament Street

The Race for Riderless Horses

Mother Superior

The Keris