One of the most respected and interesting people in Bourne during the last 100 years was Dr John Alexander Galletly who was always known by his preferred name of Alistair. He was a highly qualified and well-liked family doctor and although considered to be a little eccentric in his declining years, he had a depth of knowledge about the people of this town that has been unequalled since.

He may have inherited this trait from his father, also called John, because the few memories we have of him indicate a man of similar temperament and often inclined to follow an unconventional path.

Dr John Galletly, senior, was born and educated in Scotland but moved south in the late 19th century to practice in England, having done locum work in Cumberland where he met his wife Caroline. He went originally to Rippingale in 1890 and lived at Down Hall, also known as the Doctor's House, at a time when ambulances were horse-drawn and emergencies relied on a farmer's cart to transport an injured patient. The doctor's area was also limited to those places that could be reached by a pony and trap or even a bicycle. Seven years later, he took over Dr Robert Brown's practice in North Road, a property that once stood near the present bus station. Their son John was born there on 18th February 1899, the eldest of four children, and when he was seven, the family moved to The Gables, a newly built house at No 40 North Road where the practice remained for the next 70 years.

John was educated at Sleaford Grammar School, travelling there and back from Bourne each day by train, and in 1911 he and his brother Noel and their younger sister Ruth were sent to school at the Lycee de Cherbourg after their father, a frugal Scot, had discovered that he could educate all three in France for the price of one in England, and during his time there, John became a fluent French speaker. 

From there, he went to Epsom College in Surrey, a school for the sons of doctors, and in the summer of 1917, having been attested for military service on his 18th birthday, he joined the army and was commissioned the following April and sent to the front to join the 7th Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. While in action on September 18th, he was wounded in the right knee and sent back to England and was subsequently discharged in the spring of 1919. 

Having decided to finish his studies, John went to Queen's College, Cambridge, to read medicine for three years and he then moved to the Middlesex Hospital in London for clinical training. He qualified MRCS [Member of the Royal College of Surgeons] and LRCP [Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians] in 1925 and obtained his Cambridge degree B Chir [Bachelor of Surgery] in 1926 together with a Diploma in Public Health and a Master of Arts degree. After qualifying, he became a house physician at the Evelina Children's Hospital in Southwark Bridge Road, London, followed by similar appointments at the Middlesex Hospital where he later obtained his obstetric housemanship under the great gynaecologists of the day, Doctors Berkeley and Bonney.

During the bitter winter of 1927, he returned to Bourne to help his father in general practice and stayed, swapping the routine of hospital life for a daily round of births and deaths, fractures and bruises, extracting teeth and tonsils, dealing with diseases and infections and even mixing his own medicines. From then on, his professional life was spent in the town and when his father died in 1937, he also succeeded him as Medical Officer of Health for South Kesteven. 

Dr Galletly's interests were wide and varied, particularly in the field of local affairs, becoming a member of Bourne Urban District Council and its chairman in 1961-62, an independent member of Kesteven County Council, being made an honorary alderman in 1974. He was also a trustee of Bourne United Charities, a governor of Bourne Grammar School, vice-president of Bourne British Legion and was awarded the British Legion medal in 1991 for 70 years of loyal service. He was also active with the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance Brigade, becoming one of their senior instructors, and was appointed an Officer Brother of the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in 1969. He was also an active member of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England and for many years chairman of their local committee and closely involved with the Lincolnshire Old Churches Trust, the Lincolnshire Trust for Nature Conservation and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.

His sister, Mrs Ruth Finn, had also qualified as a doctor and during the Second World War from 1939-45 she ran a second practice in the town while Dr George Holloway of Brook Lodge was serving with the forces. Bourne's population at this time was around 5,000 and they were the only doctors in town. When Dr Holloway returned after the war and resumed his practice, Dr Finn became the Medical Officer of Health for the district.

Dr Galletly combined his professional and public work with a love of gardening and a keen knowledge of local history, becoming an inveterate letter writer to newspapers and magazines on a wide variety of topics but most were usually reminders of times past. During his career, he saw innumerable changes in medicine, new drugs, different methods of treatment, remarkable refinements in surgery and the implementation of the National Health Service in 1948 which he welcomed. He was socially gregarious and numbered the comedian and actor Sir George Robey (1869-1954), dubbed "The Prime Minister of Mirth", among his friends after he had been invited to open a garden fete in the grounds of his North Road home in 1936 to help raise funds for the Butterfield Hospital. Robey, then plain Mister, was appearing at the Embassy Theatre in Peterborough and came to Bourne with the consent of the management and after an amusing and entertaining speech, he signed photographs for a small fee which went towards the appeal and then toured the hospital. Those in the photograph below are (from left to right)  Mr A E K Wherry OBE, Mrs Robey (the former Blanche Littler, sister of the London theatrical impresario Prince Littler), Mr Robey, Dr Galletly and an unknown lady whose husband should no doubt have been sitting in the vacant chair.

Even during his final years as a general practitioner, the room at his home that he used as a surgery remained in appearance as it was when he had treated patients there in years past. A Bunsen burner was attached to the wall and a sink with hot and cold taps fitted into his workbench. On the shelves were bottles of acids and other chemicals, all neatly labelled in Latin and it was these ingredients that he used in mixing his own medicines, often using a pestle and mortar. He remembered those times when interviewed in March 1985:

People used to bring their own bottles that I would fill with my medicines. I used to have to pound and pound with the pestle to get the right liquidity. It was easier for patients to swallow a liquid than take a pill. I also used a lot of olive oil to make ointments because it was such a perfect emollient lotion. A lot of my medicines came from herbs. Foxgloves for instance, were used as a heart medicine. I used tannic acid for nose bleeds, eucalyptus for curing coughs, colds and congestion, zinc for making up ointments and magnesium sulphate for bowel problems.  Once the National Health Service arrived, I could give out prescriptions to everyone and they could collect their medicines from the chemist because there was no charge any more. This was much easier than pounding away with the pestle and writing out bills for patients afterwards. I used to charge about 3s. 6d (17½p in decimal currency) for a bottle of medicine and 5s. (25p) for a medical check-up but it was always double for night jobs although that was usually to deliver a baby. I must have delivered between 50 and 60 babies a year and often had to use forceps when there was a problem. If I got a call to deliver a baby while patients were outside in the waiting room, I used to tell them all to go home and come back next day. I would charge £2 for a rush job like that but everyone got treated in the end. I really loved my work. The sight of blood never bothered me but my stomach did turn at the sight of someone vomiting.

Dr Galletly retired in 1969 when he was 70, having been practising in Bourne for 41 years. A public collection held to mark the occasion totalled £257 15s., some of which was used to buy an easy chair and a transistor radio and the balance of £201 was given to him by cheque. Making the presentation, Mr R G Chapman said that the doctor had spent his professional life as medical advisor and confidante to the people of Bourne. He added: "Very few achieve the respect and affection which Dr Galletly commands over a very wide area. He is known to everyone and his medical skill has benefited four generations. Truly, the expression 'family doctor' can be used without fear of contradiction in relation to him. We therefore acknowledge with gratitude his service to the community as doctor extraordinary."

In his reply, Dr Galletly said that it had been a privilege and a pleasure to serve the people of Bourne. "I have a feeling of continuous friendship with everyone, making life so very much worthwhile."

After his retirement, the practice was moved to the new clinic in St Gilbert's Road but ironically, the house was refurbished for use as the Galletly Group Practice after his death and some of the old medical instruments that he and his father had used were preserved as a small museum. His interests in medicine, people and the community continued until the end of his life and he maintained a wide circle of loyal friends until his death on 4th April 1993 at the age of 94. 

In his retirement years, Dr Galletly admitted that he missed what he called, the old days, and the role of the doctor in today's modern practices. Shortly before his death, he wrote: "The burden of the general practitioner has been lightened very much but is he still as much a member of the community as he used to be? Does he still have to wonder what is meant by 'the vapours' or dissuade a patient from the use of bread as a poultice or even goose grease? And will he find a nice cup of tea and a piece of cake for him after attending a confinement?"

See also

A Life in Practice     A remarkable medical man      The smallpox outbreak

The Rippingale surgery     Changing times at the doctor's house