Donald George Murray Smart (FN 42-47). Pippa Smart has kindly submitted the following:
“My father attended St Bees School, just 15 miles south of his home in Workington and enjoyed his time there – even making it to Head Boy - and retained a fondness for the school for the rest of his life. He played the organ at its chapel services. He told us how pupils were effectively kicked out for the whole day on regular occasions to entertain themselves in the open air, and although most headed for the coast, he used to take his bike and explore the mountains and roads of the northern lake district - recounting huge journeys across passes where the bike (those heavy 1940s bikes) had to be carried most of the way. This started his love of the fells and the mountains that lasted the rest of his life.
Although he received a place at Cambridge to read history, he took a swift about-turn and decided to become a dentist – deferring national service to go to Manchester University. This meant that when he did his national service he went in as a Captain (three pips!) and was sent to Kaduna in Nigeria. Out there he managed his own dentistry unit, providing care for both the British military and the local population. He took a camera with him and kept a record of his time there that he turned into an amazing scrapbook of his experiences - which seemed to include relatively little dentistry and a lot of R&R! When he returned from Nigeria he needed a job, and got a position as assistant dentist in Buckingham, thanks to his mother, who took the initiative to ask about possible positions. Dentistry in those days was very different - I remember him telling me that during training they were told that buck teeth in a woman were considered attractive so they should not straighten women’s teeth as much as men’s!
	Donald Smart 1989
It was when he was working as a dentist in Buckingham that he met my mother, and they were married in late 1956 and moved to their first home in Aylesbury, with a semi-feral cat.  During their long marriage they had eight dogs, numerous horses, but no more cats.   Once he had got sufficient experience, he opened his Aylesbury practice, and in the late 1970s he left Aylesbury and opened up a Winslow practice after moving to Stewkley in 1975. My father witnessed a total revolution in tooth care and dentistry during his career. At Manchester he had met Malcolm McGregor, an anaesthetist, who also lived and worked locally. They worked together at the Friday evening surgery in Aylesbury and until the late 60s they would have a full book for extractions every Friday, but within a few years after the introduction of fluoridation the number of people (and teeth) plummeted to a few every other week as tooth health improved dramatically. He was always keen to try out new ideas and new treatments. One of these was the baby bottle warmer – not something you’d see in many dentists’ surgeries. He’d read that warming injection fluid to blood temperature made it less painful for the patient. This care for his patients meant he was greatly respected. He was always an NHS dentist and believed passionately about the right to free dental care for everyone. Thirty years ago he retired from dentistry, but filled his time to capacity once he had stopped work. He was a keen sportsman, He’d started playing rugby at St Bees and continued this by playing for Aylesbury and Buckingham. He was also, earlier in his life, a good squash player until his doctor hinted that his regular (minor) injuries were a way of his body telling him it was time to give up. I also learned that he suffered hand injuries whilst playing rugby and revived his piano playing as physiotherapy to get his hands back into working order. He also loved and was a good skier. In the 1980s he returned to regular cycling and especially enjoyed the London to Brighton races which he started joining in 1986. He loved a challenge, and a tough ride of around 50miles with a killer hill near the end was an achievement he was rightly proud of. He wasn’t put off by falling off his bike and suffering concussion, and the last race he cycled was in 2009 – when he was 80! Over the years the ride might have become slower, and the breaks longer, but one constant was the final slap up meal when they arrived in Brighton, in Wheelers restaurant, before the coach journey home. He also loved growing vegetables. This started with the large allotment-garden in Weeden, and then the large plot at Bonham Farm - of which strawberries and raspberries seemed to dominate. And he had a particular passion for growing tomatoes. He loved cars, and over the years owned several amazing ones. The list includes a gorgeous E-Type Jaguar, a Triumph, a Lotus Eclat, and a beautiful Panther Lima. The latter two were unfortunately written off – but not by him! Another keen interest was new technology, which included buying a Sinclair ZX80 computer in the early 80s. Ten years ago he decided he should get another computer and bought a laptop. He was very quick to pick it up – perhaps a little too quick, for, within a couple of months he had realised that he could use it to compare prices and announced that he’d just bought a car online. The car was the Nissan Duke, his last car.  He then discovered the iPad and the laptop was discarded. I think it’s fair to say that his greatest joy was discovering that he could play Sudoku on the iPad. He had a great sense of humour and Morecombe and Wise was probably his favourite act (but who doesn’t love them?). Fawlty Towers was another favourite programme. My father had a quick wit; he liked people and people liked him. He had a full life, a good life, and a long life. We will miss him.”

 

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St Bees School,    St Bees,    Cumbria,    CA27 0DS.

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