Page 26 - RADC Bulletin 2019

Lt Col Tony Cheetham
6th March 1943 – 12th December 2018
It came as a great shock, to many of
us in the RADC who had known Tony Cheetham, when we heard the sad news that he died on the 12th December 2018.
It was not unsurprising, though, that such a colourful and charismatic member of the Corps as Tony should attract a very large number of friends, relatives and members of the Corps to his funeral service, a service of Thanksgiving at All Saints’ Church Trefonen on 10th January 2019.
Tributes were paid to Tony by members of his immediate family, his daughter Sarah and sons Mark and Nick, and their combined eulogy provides the background to this Obituary.
We will all have our own memories of Tony and some of those may be similar to what his son Mark wrote, when aged 8 years old in a school essay; ‘My father has black hair, brown eyes and is 5 and a half feet tall. His hobbies are gardening, guitar playing, model aeroplanes and golfing. He is a dentist
in the army and sometimes makes eggs disappear and talks in silly voices.’
Tony was born on 6th March 1943 and grew up in Didsbury, Manchester with his parents and older brother John. He was educated at the Burnage Grammar school from where he went on to study dentistry at Durham University qualifying in 1967. He spent 6 years in General Practice in Belper, Derbyshire, before joining the RADC in 1973 until taking premature voluntary retirement in 1989 in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He then went back into a civilian General
practice for 4 years before joining the Dental Reference Service in which he worked for a further 14 years eventually retiring in 2007.
Tony was an excellent dentist always ensuring his patients received the very best treatment he was able to give them. He always looked after his staff and would never except second best from them, and in return he was highly respected and appreciated by them. As an example, while in Cyprus Tony invited some of the unaccompanied soldiers to join him and his family for Christmas Day. A ritual that became legendary!
In the 1980s he became worried that the Army was not offering vaccinations for Hepatitis B to dental teams. He was vocal in lobbying for action to be taken, which it was, but no doubt his enthusiastic efforts may have upset the holders of the purse strings somewhat.
Tony was, like a good number of us, ‘persuaded’ and ‘cajoled’ by ‘higher command’ and Lt Col Ted Bishop to put ourselves through two years of extremely stiff postgraduate education in an endeavour to achieve the ‘gold standard’ qualification
in general dental practice – Membership
in General Dental Surgery (MGDS). Not satisfied with that Tony was then selected for MSc training at the Eastman Dental Hospital following which he was posted to Germany as Clinical Advisor in Periodontology
and Preventive Dentistry for the Army. Unfortunately he was not selected to take over as Director of the School of Dental Hygiene, an appointment he would have
Tony Cheetham
filled and carried out extremely well. Perhaps it was this lack of recognition that hastened his early retirement from the RADC? He became an examiner for the Faculty of General Dental Practice from 1991 – 2002 and Chief presiding examiner for the overseas faculty examinations held in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. He was an examiner for the National Examining Board for Dental Nurses for 21 years, Chairman of the Oral Health examination for the Dental Nurses Examination Board and a member of the Core Group for the Faculty
of Dental Surgery for London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin Colleges from 2002 to 2008.
Tony the family man with Doreen, Nick, Sarah and Mark
24 RADC BULLETIN 2019
OBITUARY