Service Child - by Paul Davison (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Initially I chronicle our family's itinerant service lifestyle trailing my father's RAF postings during his twenty-nine years of being a chaplain from 1947. Although there have been numerous books written by service men past and present, this one uniquely contemplates the entire experience through the eyes of a dependent child. Now a mainly bygone era, my personal recollections describes exhilarating travel, life on the various bases resulting in disrupted schooling and friendships, adventures and problems, especially for my youngest brother who was born handicapped from the Rubella syndrome and was adversely affected by the vagaries of this nomadic existence.

The second half of the book documents my seven years as a boarder in Northern Ireland, through medical school, becoming a junior doctor and my subsequent work as a GP and Police Surgeon. I record many interesting case histories and anecdotes, including some pithy experiences as a Forensic Medical Examiner. I am aware that many readers are captivated by true-life medical stories, but I also weave an insight into the reorganization of general practice in the last thirty years, as well as my own personal life experiences, contrasting those with the unfolding of my handicapped brother's circumstances.