| History | John Fleetwood was born in 1917, he attended Blackrock College before studying medicine at UCD. Having qualified, Fleetwood volunteered for the Local Defence Force during the emergency, and worked at the Coombe hospital, before setting up in General Practice in Blackrock. Fleetwood became increasingly interested in gerontology (care of the elderly), having attended an International Gerontology conference Fleetwood was instrumental in establishing the Irish Gerontological Society in 1950, and was an active member. He was also involved in founding of the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Irish College of General Practitioners, was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and contributed regularly to the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland. In 1961 Fleetwood was appointed to Our Lady's Hospice in Blackrock, he spoke and wrote on gerontological subjects. He was also involved in palliative care and the hospice movement.
Fleetwood researched and wrote widely on the history of his professions. He published The History of Medicine in Ireland (1951) and The Irish Body Snatchers (1988), as well as a variety of shorter pieces on a range of topics from Irish spas to an Irish Field Ambulance in the Franco-Prussian War. He also contributed regularly to medical publications such as Hospital Doctors of Ireland and Medicine Weekly.
Fleetwood's wider literary interests included plays and pantomimes, of which he wrote several, the history of golf on which he published All the World's a Links in 1999, and he was a regular contributor to the RTE programme Sunday Miscellany.
John Fleetwood died in July 2007. |