KIRK, T(homas) H(obson) 1899-2004

(K. H. Thomas)

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born January 13, 1899, in Seaton Carew, County Durham, England; died November 9, 2004, in Woolsington, Tyne and Wear, England. Kirk was a World War I veteran and physician who also published several works of fiction. After attending only two terms of medical school, the eighteen-year-old Kirk found himself thrust into medical practice as a surgeon-probationer for the Royal Navy. Assigned to the HMS Lydiard, the inexperienced, unlicensed medical student was put in charge of the health care for not only his ship's crew but also the crews of five other ships. Somehow surviving the experience without killing any of his patients, Kirk returned to school after the war, earning his M.B. and B.S. from the University of Durham in 1921, and his medical degree in 1930. He set up a private medical practice as a general practitioner in Lincolnshire, England, in 1922, where he would remain until 1964. During World War II he commanded his local Home Guard while his partner in the medical practice fought in the war. After his retirement, Kirk published three novels: Back to the Wall (1967), The River Gang (1968), and The Ardrey Ambush (1969). He also tried his hand at writing plays, one of which, Slack Water, was written under the pen name K. H. Thomas and produced by the BBC in 1955.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Post (Liverpool, England), December 3, 2004, p. 13.

Independent (London, England), December 2, 2004, p. 43.

Times (London, England), December 2, 2004, p. 71.

ONLINE

BBC News Online,http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/ (November 13, 2004).