Osteopath;
Born: March 18, 1919; Died: July 28, 2012.
Dr David Graham-Service, who has died aged 93 after a short illness, worked in Glasgow as a medical osteopath for over 50 years before retiring at the age of 75.
He was born in Lenzie in a house called Dalgowrie and attended Lenzie Academy.
In 1928 he went to Glasgow Academy and progressed to Fettes College in Edinburgh for his senior school education. With his ambition to become a doctor he went to St Andrews University from 1937 to 1942. As the oldest surviving medical graduate of St Andrews University he was invited back to the opening of the new medical school in 2010.
From 1943 to 1946 he was with the Army 218th Field Ambulance, the 64th Glasgow Yeomanry, the 138th Field Regiment Gunners and the 6th Lancashire Fusiliers in the 78th Division. He was on the front line working alongside the Padre at the battle of Cassino where he saw the monastery blown up. During that conflict 12,000 allied and 20,000 German soldiers lost their lives. This inevitably shaped the path his life would take.
After the war he went to Kirksville College in Missouri where he gained his Doctor of Osteopathy. Dr Graham-Service had a distinguished career in Glasgow, setting up practice in Newton Place in 1948, then in 1950 moving to Woodside Crescent at Charing Cross where he practised for 25 years. He moved in 1975 to Cleveden Gardens where he continued to practice until his retirement 1997. It was unusual for an osteopath to be medically qualified and when he started alternative medicine was frowned upon.
Over the years he had many interests. He was involved with the Geographical Society and became a fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in recognition of his distinguished contribution to the work of the Society.
His holidays were meticulously planned with the Geographical Society in mind and in the 1960s he travelled by car with his wife and two young children across Europe and the Iron Curtain countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia) to Greece and Turkey as far as Urgup, a town and district of Nevsehir Province in the central Anatolia region.
In these days there were no tarred roads, no AA or RAC and no mobile phones.
He was a keen campanologist, ringing at St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow, where he was captain. He also rang in many other towers throughout the UK, including York Minster and the bell tower at Inveraray.
A man of quiet Christian faith all his life, he supported the church in many ways, during his student years in St Andrews and Dundee, while a member of St Mary's Cathedral, and latterly as a member of St Bride's Episcopal Church.
While carrying out electrical work in St Bride's at the age of 75, he fell 15 feet when his ladder slipped and fractured his pelvis. Such was his strength of character that he overcame the difficult healing process and carried on with a full and varied life.
He was a keen hill walker and especially enjoyed the Austrian Alps where he, by this time in his early 70s, and his wife, Maureen, would do three or four-day treks, staying in mountain huts. He also enjoyed the challenge of the Scottish hills and walked the Aonach Eagach ridge, one of the most famous walking challenges in Scotland.
He had a great love of dogs and enjoyed receiving newsletters about those he sponsored in the Dog Trust.
Latterly he occupied his time with bridge, computing and letters to The Herald. His last letter to the newspaper was written the day he had his stroke and was admitted to hospital, and was published the next day.
He is survived by Maureen, his wife of almost 62 years, his two children Ruth and David, two grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Two grandchildren predeceased him.
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