A SURGEON who treated thousands of Bolton people during his 35 years at the Bolton Royal Infirmary has died in hospital aged 93. Gordon Mowat FRCS (Ed), whose funeral took place today at St Anne's Church, Turton, was a well-known and well-respected consultant in the Ear Nose and Throat Department at the now-closed Royal Infirmary until he retired in 1970. He was also a prominent member of the Bolton Medical Society.

His daughter Mrs Polly Hodgkinson, aged 48, who lives in Leatherhead, Surrey, said: "He took out many tonsils and adenoids over the years and I remember many times

hearing 'Your dad took my tonsils out' when I told people my name."

After Trinity College Cambridge, he trained in London and Edinburgh and worked in many hospitals throughout the country including Derby, Kirkcaldy, Wigan and Reading.

Mr Mowat's interest in medicine came from his father, who was a police surgeon in Bolton and he made many home visits with his father as a boy.

Born in Astley Bridge in Bolton, he had three younger sisters all of whom survive him.

A talented musician, he could play the piano and he loved jazz and was the saxophonist in a band in his student days.

After marrying Beryl Walker (nee Bolton) in 1945, he moved with her and his two stepchildren to Greenings House, off Broadhead Road, in Edgworth where he lived for 53 years.

The couple had three further children, and have nine grandchildren and one great grand-daughter.

As a keen golfer, he became captain and then president of Bolton Golf Club before being made a life member.

He enjoyed playing the card game bridge well into his nineties, even though latterly he was unable to hold the cards due to Parkinson's Disease.

His wife died in 1995 and he lived at home in Edgworth until he eventually moved to Newlands Nursing Home, where he had previously worked, at the end of last year.

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