A past chairman of the RACGP WA faculty
With the death of John Bamford on 29 November 1970 the medical profession of Western Australia lost one of its most devoted members. John arrived from England in 1952, having graduated through Cambridge and Guys Hospital. He settled in group practice and was one of the very early members of the College of General Practitioners and soon showed his very real interest in research and education, for many years leading the Research Committee and representing the WA faculty on the Federal body.
He conducted a survey throughout the state on the needs of general practitioner continuing education, during which he visited every country doctor and many in the metropolitan area. The huge collection of material he gathered will long remain a source of specific information and must be invaluable in planning future postgraduate needs. He was a past Chairman of the RACGP WA Faculty, and held several academic and teaching positions, being especially interested in social welfare and family medicine. He became an authority on the Lamaze method of childbirth and this, with his kindly and devoted personal attention to his patients, soon resulted in his midwifery practice becoming so large that even he found difficulty in coping.
He had been a member of the Faculty of Medicine and served on the Research Committee of the Raine Medical Research Foundation for 7 years. He was also intimately connected with the General Practitioner/Student Attachment Scheme and through this will be known to many of our graduates.
Besides a widow and four children to mourn him, John left a vast number of patients who sadly miss his skill and kindliness as well as a profession the less for his departure.
Dr RW Roberts
Extracted from the Graduate Medicine Bulletin of the University of Western Australia, 1970