Dr John Gowen: Dr John Gowen, who has died at the age of 85, was one of the outstanding figures in general practice medicine in Ireland in the second half of the 20th century. He never retired until forced to by a stroke at the age of 82.
Dr Gowen was one of a small group of doctors who, in the mid-1950s, set out to make post-graduate study and training available for the first time to young GPs. Until then, Irish GPs had worked in virtual isolation after leaving medical school, so much so that one of Dr Gowen's colleagues in his efforts, Dr Edward (Ted) O'Brien, of Blackrock, Co Cork, a founder member of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1952, describes the standards of Irish GPs' work then as "very low indeed". Returning from working for four years in the then new British National Health Service (NHS) in Manchester in 1952, Dr Gowen set out with the help of Prof Denis O'Sullivan of UCC, to organise visits by leading specialist lecturers from Britain to improve the knowledge of Irish GPs.
O'Sullivan and Gowen also organised a three-day seminar each summer for GPs in UCC. In 1956, Dr Gowen joined the College of General Practitioners, as it was then called, and became secretary of the Republic of Ireland faculty of the college in 1959. He was elected a fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners, as it had by then become, in 1971. In that same year, he held a meeting of doctors at his home in Youghal at which a training scheme for newly-qualified doctors in Munster was launched.
Also at this time, he was appointed to the Commission on the Future of General Practice in Ireland by President Childers, during the latter's period as minister for health. Following its report, two years' hospital training and a year's traineeship were made standard for all new doctors aspiring to work as GPs. He also served a period as provost of the Republic of Ireland faculty of the RCGP.
He was born in England in 1920, the third of six children of an Irish electrical engineer, John "Gully" Gowen and his wife, Maud Lillian Doe, a seamstress, who was English, and, unlike her Catholic husband, an Anglican. In 1926, the family returned to live in Ballyhinden, near Fermoy, Co Cork, influenced perhaps by Gully Gowen's strong republican views.
John Gowen was sent to the Christian Brothers' College in Cork, where he excelled academically and at rugby. His career as a medical student at UCC was interrupted for financial reasons, and he joined the Irish Army, serving during the Emergency, returning to college in the mid-1940s.
It was at UCC that he met his wife, an exact contemporary and fellow medical student, Margaret McHenry. In medical school, he continued to thrive academically, and obtained a first on graduation in 1948. In 1952, Dr Gowen opened his own practice in Youghal where he would remain for the rest of his life.
Outside of his family and his extremely busy practice, John Gowen became a keen fly fisherman, hunted enthusiastically for many years with the West Waterfords and sailed. He was an attentive reader, especially of history.
Dr Gowen is survived by his wife and four daughters, Margaret, Fionnuala, Molly and Sheila, and by four sons, Peter, Paddy, John and Maurice. A fifth daughter, Anne, pre-deceased him.
John Gowen, born 10th June, 1920; died November 2nd, 2005.