A WELL-KNOWN doctor, who worked as Blackburn Rovers medical officer for 14 years, has died at the age of 92.

Dr Tom Burke - who also wrote for the Lancashire Evening Telegraph during his 43 years of medical service - died on Saturday in Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

Born in Cardiff, Dr Burke was educated at Cardiff High School, the Welsh National School of Medicine and Charing Cross Hospital, where he qualified in 1925.

He came Blackburn as a locum with his cousins, doctors Jack and Maurice Sellars, and eventually became a partner before setting up his own practice. His special interests included industrial medicine and he became medical officer to several large concerns including Foster, Yates and Thom and the Northrop Loom Company.

Dr Burke became chairman of the Blackburn District branch of the British Medical Association and President of the Blackburn and District Medical and Dental Society.

He was also instrumental, with two close colleagues, in persuading a French order of nursing nuns to open a private hospital in Blackburn in an area where private medicine was non-existent.

The hospital, Our Lady of Compassion - now Beardwood Hospital - evolved into a modern, fully-equipped hospital.

During his career, Dr Burke played a prominent role as publicity officer for the British Medical Association and was vociferous in several struggles between the profession and government. When he retired from general practice in 1968, he went to live in St Annes and continued to serve as a ship's surgeon on the South American run for some years.

During the war, Dr Burke served in a casualty clearing station in North Africa. He reached the rank of captain through the Italian campaign.

In his spare time, he enjoyed classical music, gardening and foreign travel as well as playing golf and hockey.

Dr Burke's first wife, Jenny, died in 1935 following childbirth. He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Hilda, one son and three daughters, nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

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