THE late John Cleary was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary who did not suffer fools gladly.

He could be loud, brash, outspoken and very, very funny. He insulted his chums with glee but never with malice. His friendship, once given, never wavered.

He was a man of compassion and skill who was committed to his profession. He worked hard and played hard, had an infectious laugh that would have filled a music hall and a love of people and life.

He enlivened Meltham Golf Club (and anywhere else he played). In retirement, he pursued his passions for travel, golf, skiing and scuba diving.

John was born in Manchester and grew up partly there and in Canada. He attended Liverpool University Medical School and did his early training in Liverpool hospitals. He came to Huddersfield in 1980.

He lived in Holmfirth with his wife and soulmate Gill, a former theatre nurse, and died, aged 69, after a long illness.

His many friends gathered at St John’s Church, Upperthong, and later at The Huntsman, to remember the man and the legend and the brilliant raconteur.

His stories were memorable because of his sharp observation and because they couldn’t have happened to anybody else. He seemed to attract the bizarre.

During a very cold winter in Liverpool early in his career the morgue was filled with victims of hypothermia. John had business with the mortuary attendant and, while he waited, chatted to a postman who was sitting in the corridor.

When the attendant finally became free John nodded towards the postman and said, in a quiet aside: “He’s not very friendly.” To which the attendant replied: “He’s dead, John.”

For a charity football match between The Jacob’s Well and the Examiner, he turned out in Gucci casual loafers and promptly damaged his Achilles tendon. He did not, however, let this stop him from fulfilling his HRI duties. He invented his own three-wheeled K9 upon which to rest one knee and scooted around the hospital like Long John Silver.

Colleague Frank Jennings said at the funeral: “The stories about him and told by him are many and most cannot be repeated in a house of God. But I’m sure that now he’s up there, God will be giving him a nudge and saying: Go on, John. Tell us another.”

A moving personal tribute from Lesley Townsend, his secretary for 20 years, was read at the service. One line she wrote sums up John Cleary perfectly: “It was a pleasure to have known him.”