A RESPECTED GP who served a community for more than 40 years has died at the age of 82.

Dr Roelof Boersma was made a partner at Mowbray House Surgery in Northallerton in 1964, six years after he qualified in medicine from the University Edinburgh.

Born in Naaldwijk in the Netherlands, Dr Boersma came to the UK as a baby with his parents and two sisters in the 1930s. The family settled in East Yorkshire, where his parents ran a market garden.

After graduating from university, Dr Boersma spent a year in hospitals in Winnipeg, Canada, before returning to Edinburgh to train as a GP.

During his time in Northallerton he became a well-respected GP and served on the North Yorkshire Local Medical Committee. He was also clinical assistant at the nearby maternity hospital and was the practice’s first GP trainer.

Dr Boersma was well-loved by his patients and was regularly stopped in the street long after his retirement in 1996.

Outside of medicine, he had a variety of hobbies, including wildlife and landscape photography, fly-fishing, gardening, walking, travel, tennis, singing, squash and chess.

He was also chairman of the Abbeyfield Society, a member of Northallerton Rotary Club and a lifelong Methodist.

Dr Boersma died from colonic carcinoma on May 15. He leaves behind his wife of 55 years, Anne, three children, and four grandchildren.