Peter saw a holiday cottage (No 2 Barn Row) advertised for rent at Paglesham in
the early 60's so, as a family, we spent our holidays in the village and the
surrounding countryside. After having watched the sailing activities down at the
water, Peter decided to resuscitate the old racing sailing dinghy in storage in
London (Tinker) that he had bought after the war. (Tinker is now in the
possession of Simon Joel and hopefully sailing again this year).
After a lot of varnishing, we towed her down to Paglesham and, on the advice of
the Boatyard - still owned by Frank Shuttlewood in those days, put her in the
rill where Irma is now, She promptly sank as she had dried out so much. A few
days later she had taken up and we were able to go sailing. Apart from Peter,
this was the family's first sailing experience.
Although Tinker is only 12 foot long, all 4 of the family proceeded to start
sailing on the Roach and occasionally venturing out into the Crouch. The yard
would keep a careful eye on us to ensure we were not being too stupid and would
supply useful advice and support (I think they thought we were more than a
little mad!). We explored the creeks and rills on the Roach, slowly learning
about sailing by the best method, in a small, very tender, sailing dingy, making
and learning from our mistakes as we went along and eventually taking part in
some of the Paglesham races.
After a few years, Peter realised that a 12 foot boat for a growing family was
too small so he started to look around for a larger boat and purchased Gypsy
from Heybridge Basin. Gypsy was a 22 foot, clinker built, centre board Estuary 3
tonner, (similar to a Dauntless but with less beam and freeboard)
Peter very wisely decided, that, as this was a new boat to him and much larger
that anything the family was used to, to ask Fred Elliot (Anthony's father and
then foreman of Shuttlewoods) to come along as skipper on the first voyage. So
on a cold Whitsun Bank Holiday, with Fred in charge, we proudly set off down the
Roach in our first cabin boat. Then the fun began !!!.
The wind started to increase and among other faults, we discovered that the
roller reefing on the mainsail would not work so we turned round and headed back
to Paglesham with a vigorous breeze behind us. As we were passing Quay Reach, we
gybed and then discovered that the boom was too long and if it lifted during a
gybe, it did not clear the backstay, Result - capsize on our first outing.
Luckily we were all wearing life jackets and towing a dingy, so, as the boat
settled on its side, the family slipped into the water (I trod on Baa's head and
she disappeared below the surface - she was not amused) and Fred calmly stepped
into the dingy - keeping 100% dry, (why did we not think of this) .
We all hung onto the side of the dingy whilst Fred choose a suitable boat to
rescue us (comments along the lines of - This one was going too fast therefore
they did not know what they are doing and that one was too small). Fred
eventually settled on a very nice Camper & Nicholson 30 footer who took us on
board, supplied us with dry cloths and helped recover Gypsy. She was towed back
to the Yard and promptly underwent a number of modifications.
We cruised up and down the East Coast in Gypsy for the next couple of year,
taking advantage of her 11 inch draft - leaving the Crouch for the first time
and learning about navigation and cruising. Being masochists we also removed all
her paint and varnished the hull. This now left us with 2 rowing dinghies,
Tinker and Gypsy to varnish every season.
However after the capsize episode we never really had full confidence in her
afterwards so in 1968, Peter sold Gypsy and bought an all varnished Hungarian
Folkboat which we named William Blyth after "Hard Apple" Blyth, the Church End
church warden and local smuggler.
In the next 10 years we were able to spend a part of the summer taking part in
the occasional Paglesham race, cruising the East Coast and occasionally
frightening ourselves by being out in weather we had not encountered before.
Being a Folkboat, the boat got us home in spite of ourselves. During this
period, we cruised occasionally with Jack Coote - a great friend of Peter's and
as a result of Jack's photography skills, ended up on the front cover of
Yachting Monthly, and in/on more than 1 edition of East Coast Rivers.
William Blyth continued to cruise and race under the command of various members
of the family until after nearly after 30 years in the family, Peter sold
William Blyth in 1997. He continued to sail with me on Triumphant and with my
sister on Corrente.
Peter was the commodore of the United Hospitals Sailing Club for 27
years. He believed in the necessity of providing hard working medical students
with the opportunity to relax sailing and he also thoroughly enjoyed taking part
in many of the festivities at Burham week
Peter was also a member of the Crouch Harbour Authority and Crouch Area Yachting
Federation for many years and served as chairman of both. Drawing on his
experience in other fields, he worked hard at achieving the formation of the
Harbour Authority and ensuring that it's effectiveness and it's profile were
communicated to the users of the Rivers Crouch and Roach. At CAYF he represented
the sailing community's interests within the Crouch area and ensured that their
voice and opinions were heard and taken into account on the CHA
Peter was educated at University College School and won a
scholarship to study medicine at the age of sixteen. He qualified in 1941 with
honours and distinction in forensic medicine and hygiene and then became
involved with government research.
In 1943 he volunteered for the RAFVR, where he served of both Coastal and
Fighter command. He combined his medical duties with research into the problems
experienced by aircrews on long-range sorties, and was involved in the
development of anti-G force suits, sunglasses, aircraft early ejection seats and
jungle escape packs. During the war he also developed an interest in sailing and
bought Tinker from a fellow RAF fellow officer.
After the War he returned to the academic world as a lecturer at Kings College,
and married Melita, who tragically died in a road accident in 1957. In 1949, he
obtained a travelling fellowship to the John Hopkins Hospital Medical School in
Baltimore USA. It was here that his interest in electro-pharmacological
techniques started which would set the direction for his future research work
both at King's and then Barts.
In 1956 he was invited to head the new Department of Pharmacology at Barts as a
senior lecturer, and was appointed Professor in 1962. There, he designed and
equipped the department and pioneered the use of CCTV & Video recording as a
visual aid in teaching. His chosen research field of electro-pharmacology
attracted many post graduate research students, of which 24 subsequently became
Professors, others gained DScs and some even achieved F.R.S. - a tribute to his
mentoring, teaching and guidance skills,
In addition to his academic career and life, Peter gave a large
amount of his time to public service until very recently. Peter focused his
efforts into being innovative, identifying changes that were needed, shaping the
solutions and then taking an active, hands on, role in delivering the solutions
and in motivating the people amongst whom he worked.
Peter was a member and chairman of London University Convocation and the BMA
Board of Science. He co-authored many influential BMA reports, including reports
on the medical effects of nuclear war, boxing, and alternative therapy. Despite
not being an optician, Peter also served as deputy chairman to the General
Optical Council and as chairman of 2 of its key committees and went on to be its
longest serving member (1975-1988).
In 1983, the BMA expressed great concern that the care of the dying in the UK
was inadequate and that there was no authoritative national voice to speak on
behalf of the hospice movement. Peter became a Co-Founder and a Co-Chairman of
the charity "Help The Hospices" and assisted in bringing together the necessary
fund raising skills, the key members of the Hospice movement and the medical
profession to address these issues.
The above covers Peter's public achievements for which he was awarded the OBE;
he was also a very kind, humorous and private man. One of his special skills was
to be able to communicate with and motivate anyone regardless of age, background
and topic.
His second wife Barbara always supported him and he showed great interest and
pride in the activities and achievements of his children, and of his 3
grandchildren.