Personal Reflections

Some of our letters are not printed in full and are hence snapshots of the originals.

To add a personal reflection to the site,
please send an email with your message to info@rhec.org.uk.

By Leroy Marke: (2007, London)

“It is customary when eulogizing to convey a saintly image of a person, highlighting their virtues while artfully sidestepping those uncomfortable truths. I make no apologies for following the rule, in so for the relatively brief period I knew him, those were all I saw. Indeed, I was always aware of daddy the doctor, having spent many an hour after school in his surgery, playing with his hammer and stethoscope. It was only recently that I became aware of his achievements, the magnitude of his standing amongst our society. All I know was a doting father who I absolutely loved spending time with. When he was at work, I would be around the surgery. When he drove home from work, I would be on his lap. Even when he took his naps, I would also be there sometimes napping with him or just long enough to drink the glass of cold water he’d asked for, but left for me. Many well past adulthood underestimate the perceptiveness of children. Having followed him around and being a child, I was a witness to many acts of kindness. How many times did a patient come in unable to pay, some actually leaving with money. The thing that stayed with me was the way he treated the wife of Kemoh, the gardener. Regardless of their wealth and social standing, he always treated you with kindness and respect. Some might say this unwillingness to see the bad in anyone was a flaw. So what? For me, it says everything about him. It is well know that great men can be good, but not all great men are good men. The combination of great and good is extremely rare. There are very few of them and my dad just happened to be one of them.”

By John Kirkham (attended Caius College Cambridge with Dr. Eleady-Cole)

Dr. Reginald (Reggie) Haworth Eleady-Cole OR, MB BChir (Cantab) FRCP (Edin), was one of 25 medical students matriculating in 1954, who have maintained some sort of touch ever since. We have had reunions occasionally and they have been timed to coincide with Reggie’s visits to England for post – graduate study or contribution. Reggie was a bit special in that he was the only African student in our year and I think probably the first African scholarship boy to come to Caius. He grew up in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in a comfortably-off family and was educated at the Methodist College there and then the Prince of Wales School.

He Came to England to do his pre-medical course and started off in 1954 at the relatively old age, we thought then of 25. Reggie fitted in well, having an extremely amiable nature and a rich sense of humour and fun. He went with several other students of that year to the London Hospital Medical School where he qualified and then progressed in specialist medicine to become a cardiologist. Casting aside the temptation of a good career in Britain, he retained to Sierra Leone where he really did distinguish himself. I don’t mean with public distinctions but rather by being both a distinguished and a generous doctor. His distinction was in his tireless work to build up the cardiology and specialist medical services, which included a scheme where Reggie would visit various outlying hospitals at the drop of a hat to deal with cardiac emergencies and advise on them in addition to his already heavy workload in his base hospital, the Connaught. He traveled widely and was a well known figure at all the major international cardiological conferences, not entirely because he wished to go to so many of them, but because the Government of Sierra Leone was proud to have a chap such as Reggie to send. He was very active in attending to the needs of ordinary patients and continued to do just this, despite all sorts of duties as physician to the government and the Head of State.

He had a very difficult time in the last few years, with the revolution and turbulence in Sierra Leone, but he continued his work, often at great risk to himself – he never feared to attend patients in strife – torn areas and was often in danger. All this culminated in his house and hospital being sacked and Reggie eventually escaping in an open boat to Guinea. He took with him a large supply of drugs which were necessary to treat the severe ailments from which he suffered. When he go to Guinea, he found more sick patients and he gave all his drugs away.

One thing which Reggie did appreciate greatly was the great care by Frank Marsh, one of our year, and a fellow student of Reggie’s at The London, now a physician and nephrologist at The Royal London. Frank orchestrated Reggie’s referral to appropriate specialists, looked after Reggie during exacerbations of his illness, and at the end did everything possible to help Reggie and his family.

His funeral, at the Quex Road Methodist Church in Kilburn, took place on Friday 17th October 1997, and the church was packed. There were about 150 people who could not get in even to the aisles and who stood outside but joined in the service through the open door. Reggie was a good man and he was very keen on The Church in Caius – he was a staunch Methodist and he welcomed the new approach which was introduced in 1954 by the then Dean Hugh Montefiore and the Chaplain, Dennis Delahoyd. Dennis was a particular friend to Reggie’s.

When Reggie was an undergraduate, Ghana gained its independence – the first African state to do so. A party was held to celebrate this and Reggie was summoned to attend. He pointed out that he was from Sierra Leone and knew nothing about Ghana but he was told that he looked perfectly good for the part and he would attend anyway. The dinner, we understood (no other undergraduates were there), was a great success, at least in part due to Reggie delivering an excellent speech.

We were all very fond of Reggie. He loved Caius and was very proud of the College and his association with it. I don’t know if you might like to say a prayer for him in Chapel where he was a regular attender.