Jack Brodie was born in Sydney Australia in 1920 where he lived until 1931 when he was 11 years old. He came to the UK and for a year lived in Glasgow and attended Whitehill Secondary School, but then he was taken back to Sydney by the family where he lived for a further year before again returning to Glasgow.
He became head boy at his school and excelled in athletics. On 3rd August 1939, Jack was one of 50 boys chosen as ‘ worthy representatives of the old country’ by the W H Rhodes Education Trust, sponsored by the Bradford businessman of that name, and set sail on SS Aruania for a tour of Canada.
He returned to Liverpool on 2nd September 1939 and war was declared the following day. SS Aruania’s sister ship was unfortunately blown up in the Irish Sea. That same year he went to Glasgow University to study medicine and graduated in 1945. During his student days he was a volunteer firewatcher throughout the war.
After graduating, Jack joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as a ship’s surgeon just as the war was ending and was demobbed in 1947 when he began work in a Glasgow hospital. He decided that he would like to be a GP and applied successfully for a post in Hartlepool. In September 1948 he and his Scottish wife and primary school teacher, Joyce Ward moved to the town. Jack originally went into practice with Dr Farmer, but then teamed up with a fellow Glaswegian Dr Sim and they worked together at Stockton House in Durham Street on Hartlepool Headland with a further surgery later at 234 West View Road. He was a highly committed and popular and well remembered doctor in the old tradition, working 6 days a week with every other night and Wednesday afternoons off. He retired at 65 years of age in 1987.
Dr and Mrs Brodie first lived in Rosedale Avenue, moving to nearby Clifton Ave which was to be their home for over 60 years. They had a son Graham, and three daughters, Gillian, Heather and Joy and the family were all stalwarts of St John’s Presbyterian Church in Park Road. Amongst other interests in his adoptive town, Jack was a member of Seaton Golf Club, The Retired Gentlemen’s Forum, The Hartlepool Caledonian Society and was a supporter of HMS Trincomalee Trust. The couple celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary and had a letter from the Queen on that occasion.
After a long and fulfilling life, Jack died in 2013 and his ashes were scattered in the sea off the Headland, an area which he loved. The family donated a seat as a memorial to the popular Headland doctor near 12 Rodney Place.
His sea chest containing artefacts from his time as a ship’s surgeon in the RNVR have been kindly donated to Hartlepool Museum Service by his family.
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Hartlepool Sports & Leisure
Dr Jack Brodie
