A COMMUNITY GP in Huddersfield has died after a distinguished career.

Dr Geoffrey Sykes, who was born in Fartown in 1922, died on September 19 at the age of 87 after a short illness.

He was educated locally, including at Almondbury Grammar School.

After school he studied medicine at Leeds Medical School. He graduated in 1948.

He joined the RAF as a doctor and was based in Lincolnshire where, in addition to providing medical services, he enjoyed taking the occasional trip in a Lancaster bomber.

He was also seconded for a period to the American Air Force and he never forgot the warmth with which the American servicemen welcomed him.

After National Service, he returned to Yorkshire and, in 1955, he married Dr Moira Herley – a fellow Leeds Medical School graduate – and they remained happily married for over 54 years.

They established a practice in Lindley where they were community GPs for nearly 35 years. During this period Dr Sykes also specialised in paediatrics, a field in which he maintained a lifelong interest.

In 1961, he was awarded an Upjohn Travelling Fellowship to study the care of children at home by hospital-based teams.

He was closely involved with the Special Care Baby Unit at the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and took great pride in its achievements.

He was a past chairman of the Leeds Regional Paediatric Club.

In 1974, he was appointed the GP Member of the Kirklees Area Health Authority by the Secretary of State and subsequently the GP Member of the Leeds Regional Health Authority, where he served for eight years.

He was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1972 and subsequently received the Yorkshire Award from the Yorkshire Faculty for services to general practice.

Dr Sykes had a deep interest in the vocational training of GPs and was the chairman of the Yorkshire Regional Postgraduate Education Committee for 17 years.

The committee established and developed the Vocational Training Scheme for GPs throughout Yorkshire.

In his retirement he often remarked that he had been “incredibly privileged to have served as a GP” and to have been able to practice in a profession that he loved.

Outside of his medical work, he had a lifelong interest in motorsports, having owned a number of motorcycles and sports cars in his younger days.

He was also a keen fly fisherman, spending many happy hours with close friends fishing for salmon in Scotland and the west of Ireland or for trout in the Yorkshire Dales.

He retired from general practice in 1989 and, in later years, he enjoyed travelling with his wife, Moira, cultivating rhododendrons, broadening the interest in antiquarian horology he inherited from his father and furthering his woodwork.

Most of all, he loved to spend time with his eight grandchildren in whom he delighted.

He is survived by his wife, Moira, his two sons, John and Philip, his daughters-in-law Sally-Ann and Anne and his eight grandchildren.

A Requiem Mass will be held at St Patrick’s Church, Huddersfield, on October 1 at 11.45am followed by a private family committal at Huddersfield Crematorium.