A doctor who ran a practice single-handedly in Leyton for three decades has died at the age of 93.

Dr David Lawrence trained as a doctor at the Royal London Hospital before joining the Royal Army Medical Corps.

He served in the forces between 1946 and 1948 in the Middle East before being appointed a registrar at the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases in the West End.

The young doctor helped to treat many prisoners of war from the Far East before taking a senior doctorate at the University of London.

In 1953 he made a career move to begin his own practice in Waltham Forest.

Dr Lawrence opened his surgery in Lea Bridge Road, where he stayed for thirty years.

Ida Lawrence, his wife of 68 years, described her husband as a ‘wonderful’ man.

“We were still very much in love,” she said.

“He cared tremendously for people, he had a wonderful way of making people feel at ease and he had a great sense of humour.

“People would still stop us in the street and hug him and kiss him on the cheek years after he retired. His patients knew that all they had to do was turn up to the surgery and they would be seen that day.

“Even in the supermarket he would see people and know them, their families, what school they went to – he had a fantastic memory.”

Dr Lawrence lived in South Woodford and died following a long illness.

He leaves behind many friends as well as Ida, two sons, Philip and Peter, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.