A MEMORIAL service is to be held on Monday in memory of Dr John Middlemiss, who died on November 27, aged 87. The service will be at St Mary s Church in Godmanchester where Dr Middlemiss has been buried. The service will celebrate the life of the family m

A MEMORIAL service is to be held on Monday in memory of Dr John Middlemiss, who died on November 27, aged 87.

The service will be at St Mary's Church in Godmanchester where Dr Middlemiss has been buried. The service will celebrate the life of the family man and GP who looked after patients in Godmanchester - including delivering babies - over two decades.

Dr Middlemiss, who died after a short illness having developed prostate cancer, worked in the town from 1969 to 1985.

He had a passion for steam traction engines and was a major pioneer of their preservation, writing extensively on the subject. His coffin was drawn to his funeral by two steam traction engines and these will also be present at the memorial service.

Steam is understood to be deeply involved in the Middlemiss family tree, direct involvement being traced back to the early days of steam in Darlington.

Dr Middlemiss was born in Settle in Yorkshire and trained at The Charing Cross Hospital in London. He met, Maria, who was Dutch, when she brought some refugees from Holland to England during the war. Dr Middlemiss's brother was a major serving in Holland during the war. Maria met his family when she came to Britain and she and John married after the end of the war. They had five children, Ann, Wilhelm, Sarah, Ted and Alice and eight grandchildren. The family lived in Northumberland for about 20 years and moved to Godmanchester in the 1960s. They liked the place, having been to Huntingdonshire on holidays.

Marie died in 1994 and three years ago, Dr Middlemiss married his second wife, Elizabeth.

Wilhelm Middlemiss has continued his father's love of steam traction engines and as a former owner of two public houses in Godmanchester, The White Hart and The Exhibition, put on annual events for charity including a steam engine display and a fun run.

He said of his father: "He was a happy and active man who led a full life up to the last six months of his life, when he was affected by illness. He was a very fond family man and father, and we will all miss him very much."

INFORMATION: The memorial service for Dr Middlemiss will be at St Mary's Church Godmanchester on Monday at noon.