Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows

David Hopton was a consultant general surgeon at York District Hospital from 1972 to 1997. He was committed to training and service development, progressive surgical practice, and cancer care, and was a lifelong sportsman and family man. David was born in Salford, Manchester. He grew up in a loving evangelical Christian family, with his father, Samuel Hopton, a design engineer, and mother, Phyllis Mary Agnes Hopton, née Hopkins, along with his maternal grandmother. Whilst an only child, he was surrounded by a close extended family from both sides. Sam was not called up to fight as he was in a protected job with ICI working on the Pluto pipeline. He moved the family to Heswall in the Wirral, for the duration of World War 2 where David attended Calday Grange Grammar School (1942-1946) and remembered seeing Liverpool being bombed in the distance from their house. On his return to Manchester, he attended Sale County Grammar School (1946-1952) where he developed his love of rugby and athletics. David entered medical school at Manchester University in October 1952 whilst still aged 17. He lived at home for the six years of his medical degree but made time for other interests, spending many happy hours at the athletic grounds, training, and competing in the 120- and 440-yards hurdles as a member of the University team. He was an active member of the Christian Union, along with his two close medical student friends, Billy Gould and John Rhodes, and it was at a service in 1955 that he initially met Janet Sealy Dunster, his future wife. David qualified in December 1958 and did house jobs at Manchester Royal Infirmary and Crumpsall Hospital. He was fond of telling the family that his weekly afternoon off began in time to attend the second half of the Wednesday evening Halle Orchestra concert. National Service for medical students was deferred until they were fully registered at the end of house jobs and, by 1959, when David was ready, it had become optional. David chose to do it, and this proved an enjoyable and formative two years. Starting in the Royal Army Medical Corps, he then joined the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment, the training for which involved 22 jumps. As the medical officer, Captain Hopton met the education officer, Colin Anderson, who became a life-long friend and godfather to his three children. David was posted initially to Libya, then Cyprus, where he captained the successful ‘Army in the Middle East’ rugby team against the other services. From there 2 PARA were deployed to Kuwait, where Iraq threatened to invade in 1961. Towards the end of his National Service, David drove back to the UK from Cyprus in his VW Beetle, driving part of the way with Janet from Istanbul to Geneva where she was working for the World Council of Churches. David extended his two years National Service by two months to join the SAS in Malaya as their medical officer. They were searching for any remaining communists in the jungle along the border with Thailand, an experience which gave him a permanent dislike of walking through woods. On discharge from the Army, surgical training began, with accident and emergency at the Oxford Radcliffe Infirmary, demonstrating anatomy in Edinburgh, RMO at the Christie Hospital, Manchester, then registrar at Preston Royal Infirmary, and research at Manchester Royal Infirmary. By 1967, David was a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of both the Edinburgh and English Colleges, exams taken whilst working a one in two on call. Two years as senior registrar in Cardiff were followed by a year’s MD research at the University of Washington, Seattle, then two further years as SR in Swansea. During his time in Cardiff, he and a physician colleague, Ieuan Davies, wrote a pocket-sized textbook titled ‘Practical Hints for Housemen’ which ran to a second edition before being superseded by the Oxford Handbook of Medicine in the 1980s. His MD on the Biliary tree was awarded at Manchester in 1970; both book and thesis typed by Janet. A chance meeting in Seattle with John Goligher, Professor of Surgery in Leeds, may have sown the seeds for his subsequent appointment as consultant in York in 1972. During those ten years of training, David had managed to get married to Janet, in 1963, and have his beloved family: Nicholas and Barny whilst in Manchester, and Judith in Swansea, three days before he left to start his consultant job in York. In York, he joined a department with three other general surgeons covering The County, The City and The Military Hospitals, until the new District Hospital opened in 1976. David was clinical lead for the development and delivery of the new hospital and, with the support of 2 Rowntree executives, David Cramb and Nick Nightingale, initiated a successful fund-raising appeal for a mammography unit in the new hospital. Whilst his elective practice included upper and lower GI, endocrine, and breast surgery, as a DGH consultant in the 1970s, the acute take could include aortic aneurysm repair, upper and lower GI emergencies and, on one occasion, burr-holes for an intra-cranial bleed. In the 1980s and 1990s he learned laparoscopy and embraced the developments in colorectal surgery. His interest in breast surgery developed, initially joining the Yorkshire Breast Cancer Group and later the breast cancer group of the British Association of Surgical Oncology with research a key part of his interest. Between 1967 and 1990 he published 20 papers on gastroenterology and, between 1988 and 1995, ten papers on breast cancer. In 1977, David attended a conference in – still communist – Prague, to which he drove overland in an Austin 1800 with the whole family. In the summer he then spent a two-month sabbatical working in Tehran (returning in 2016 to visit Nicholas, by then HM Ambassador to Iran). He was a member of the Surgical 60s Travelling Club, a group of UK general surgeons exploring surgical practice through the Club’s annual home and overseas visits. He hosted two home visits in York, grateful for his colleagues’ help with the surgical programme. David trained a series of visiting Australian registrars and, in the late 1980s, organised six-month electives at York District Hospital for American medical students from the University of the West Indies, Grenada. As a consultant, David continued to contribute to the wider NHS as the Yorkshire representative on the Central Committee for Hospital Medical Services, 1985-1993, and BMA divisional secretary and chairman. He was chairman of the Yorkshire region manpower committee, 1990-1997, taking onboard and enacting the findings of the Calman report, published in 1993. From 1985 to 1998, David was an FRCS examiner, enjoying the trips to the Edinburgh College and meeting the other examiners. With three colleagues he examined in Singapore from where, with Janet, he visited the army base in Penang, Malaya where he had been based during his time in the SAS. This was now occupied by the Malaysian army who allowed David to look round; little had changed in 30 years. Retirement was busy but different: having played squash for many years, he changed to tennis which he played weekly in all weathers until the age of 83. Sailing had been a lifelong enthusiasm starting with a tiny single sailed Puffin through dinghies of increasing size, complexity, and instability with a foray into sailboarding in the 1980s when the sport was still young. On retirement he bought a cabin cruiser, Natural Magic, with his friend Simon Hetherton, in which they competed regularly for several years as members of the Royal Yacht Club, Bridlington. His last boat was a Hawk 20 which gave many years of pleasure on Ullswater. David sat on Military Pension Tribunals until 2004, demonstrated anatomy at Leeds medical school and was a PLAB examiner. Some of his charitable involvement began long before retirement but continued: he was Chairman of Alne Hall Cheshire Home, a Trustee of the Leonard Cheshire Foundation, Chairman of the local Outward-Bound Association, Trustee of Project Mala, and Governor and Chairman at Hob Moor Oaks School. For twelve years, David was a Trustee of St. Sampson’s Community Centre in York, spending several years as chairman, and he particularly enjoyed being a York Minster Guide, retiring only in his late 70s. Closer to home, he was Chairman, trustee or member of several village committees. A highlight came in 2006/7 when Janet became the Lord Mayor of York after many years of involvement in City and County politics. Janet, and David as Lord Mayor’s Consort, lived for a year in the Mansion House where he became an expert on its history and treasures, giving many presentations to groups after the year ended. David had tremendous energy and enjoyed life. He loved his work, his home, but above all his children and grandchildren.