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OBITUARY
Edwin Russell Bishop – Ostj
‘Ted’ Bishop, as he was known by all his many friends and colleagues who knew him, died at the age of 74 following a period of illness and a protracted stay in hospital, on 28th February 2016.
Ted was born in Morpeth, Northumberland and educated at grammar schools in Morpeth, Hexham and Blyth
after which he studied Dentistry at Newcastle Dental School. Towards the end of his undergraduate dental training Ted
was commissioned into the Royal Army Dental Corps (RADC). His rst posting
was to Borneo – in the mid 1960’s quite a baptism of re for a newly quali ed dental practitioner. There followed several postings to Germany (BAOR) and to various places in the UK. Ted’s talents as a restorative dentist were noticed early in his career as a result
of which he was sent off to the Eastman Dental Hospital in London to attend the MSc course in Restorative Dentistry. Following
the completion of his MSc he was posted
to the Headquarters and Training Centre RADC in Aldershot as the Clinical Adviser in Restorative Dentistry. It was here that he not only gained a reputation as a rst class and highly skilled dental practitioner but also it is where he excelled in arranging and running postgraduate dental courses both for military and civilian dental practitioners. He had a knack of being able to attract some of the highest calibre civilian lecturers to speak
and to impart their knowledge on these courses. Ted became very much involved in teaching and in encouraging young dentists enrolled on the early Vocational Training (VT) schemes initially in collaboration with John Brookman and the Guildford VT scheme.
Ted was one of the rst dental practitioners to obtain the Membership in General Dental Surgery (MGDS) quali cation following which he encouraged, sometimes with some quite painful but always well measured arm twisting, a considerable number of RADC dental of cers to follow his example. Many of us who have served in the RADC owe Ted a tremendous vote of thanks for ‘persuading’ us to achieve the MGDS quali cation, which was then recognised
as ‘the gold standard’ in general dental practice. It was not long before the dental branches of the other two Services realised they had to follow suit. Ted’s vision and initiative were responsible for elevating the standards of military dentistry to levels that had never been achieved before.
After retiring from the army in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Ted moved to Ripley
in Yorkshire and set up a private practice in Harrogate. He continued to contribute
to postgraduate and vocational training by passing on his expertise to budding young dentists in his lectures and hands on courses at the Universities of York and Leeds until his retirement.
Ted had a very active mind and was a man of many interests as a glance along his bookshelves would reveal. He was an avid collector at various times in his life: of decorative boxes, porcelain, model soldiers and particularly stamps. Each interest he pursued with passion and dedication until, Toad of Toad Hall like, something new
caught his imagination and led him down
a different path which included his in depth study of the archaeology and architecture of English Churches.
He was a man of many skills. His hands were constantly working: professionally
in his dentistry but also as a book
binder, silversmith, painter, architectural draughtsman, garden designer and latterly a maker of historic keyboard instruments – all pursued with meticulous attention to detail.
Ted is survived by his wife Trish whom he married in 1967 and his sister Christine. James Hardy
RADC BULLETIN 2016 55