DR JOHN ANTHONY
We say goodbye to a truly great man, a remarkable character and an outstanding Rotarian in every sense.
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spected member of our Club since 1967, died peacefully at his home in Upminster during the early hours of 15th June 2009. He was 76. It was deeply fit-
r John Anthony, a greatly loved and deeply re-
ting that John should have been a member of the world’s finest international service organisation for forty- two years, since his own family back- ground was decidedly international. John’s paternal grandfather was Russian and a Ro- man Ca thol i c— whether his religion made him unpopular in Tsarist, Orthodox Russia we know not. Nevertheless the fact remains that, on a March midnight in 1906, this enterprising gentle- man hired a rowing boat and rowed himself across the pitch black harbour of St Pe- tersburg to board the ship that would take him to a new life in England. Here he married and
had two sons, one of whom retained the original family name of Anfilogoff, while the other anglicised his surname to Anthony. This same Ernest Anthony founded the medical practice in Upmin- ster which we know so well, eventually proudly taking in as partners his son John and his nephew Michael An- filogoff. All these family members have now, sadly, gone from our midst. But we leap ahead too
must be said that John had mixed memories of the de- cidedly Cromwellian atmos- phere which prevailed in that august seat of learning in those days. Perhaps it was for this reason that Dr Ernest ensured that his son’s grasp of physics and chemistry was reinforced by extra tuition from Messrs Hopkinson and Mitchard, science teachers at the then Hornchurch Gram- mar School.
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fast. Our own John Anthony received his secondary edu- cation at Brentwood School, which was then under the leadership of the renowned James Hough, although it
John Anthony, for in the full- ness of time he secured all the necessary qualifications and was accepted to read medicine at the London Hos- pital.
don Hospital was ferociously demanding, and yet the stu- dents survived and pros- pered, no doubt by virtue of dogged determination en- hanced by an indomitable
The regime at the Lon-
hese combined strivings were obviously of great value to the adolescent
lied on to add helpless mirth to any gathering of which John was a member, or could puncture pomposity or lighten a tense moment.
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sense of humour. John had countless tales of students re- lentlessly guying their tutors, playing dreadful practical jokes and presenting incredibly bawdy re- views which appear to have been received wi th uproarious laughter by their au- diences. We who have known John in his mature years will surely recognise the t ra ining whi ch formed the tireless brilliance of the out- standing professional whom we so admired and trusted. We like- wise recognise that irrepressible sense of humour and boyish clowning which could always be re-
minster and beyond which made John a deeply re- spected local personality and indeed a leading citizen of what was to become the Lon- don Borough of Havering. He was devoted to the Na- tional Health Service, claim- ing that private patients would be prone to telling him his job, though his ac- tions in general suggested that, deep down, he was fired by genuine idealism. Indeed, John’s medical career was crowned in its last phase by his being appointed Co- Director of the Havering Pri- mary Care Trust after the first reorganisation of the NHS carried out by the Blair government.
Page No. 5
n this foundation was built the life of service to the people of Up-
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