TRIBUTES have been paid to a family GP who treated thousands of patients in Falmouth at his practice in Wood Lane for over 36 years.

The funeral of Dr Alexander Corbett, who died at the age of 86 on April 15, took place at St Budoc Church on Monday.

He leaves behind his wife Helen, also a doctor, and three children Roger, Lucy and Rosalind, as well as two grandchildren Louisa and Richard.

Dr Corbett was born in County Donegal in 1917 where he grew up. He went to school in Dublin and Enniskillen before going to Trinity College where he studied medicine and got his masters.

It was there that he met Helen and began, what became, a long and happy marriage which saw them as partners at their Woodlane practice for nearly 40 years.

In 1939 Helen became a hospital doctor at Merthyr Tydfil in Wales while Dr Corbett became a locum up in Middlesborough.

He moved down to join her and they were married in Merthyr in 1940 where they managed half a day's honeymoon and didn't even have a wedding cake. A matter that was rectified on their 60th wedding anniversary at Penmere Manor by their son Roger.

The couple came to Falmouth in 1940 where Dr Corbett was a medical officer for the Home Guard and RAF, He took over the Woodlane practice in 1942 from Dr McKernan.

"They had no furniture," said Roger "and ate their meals off the top of an Anderson shelter in the kitchen.

"He and my mother both worked there as sole practitioners, on call seven days a week 24 hours a day.

"It was very hard work and they would be called out two or three nights a week for births and deaths and other emergencies.

"It wasn't until the mid 1950s that they started to take a half day. The doctors in the town got together to cover for half a day a week and weekends.

"My father and mother were very highly respected and loved dearly by their patients I am asked to this day how they are nearly 30 years after they retired. He was good friends with everybody and well respected.

He loved his babies and did hundreds of home deliveries. One of the nurses who treated him at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Treliske was one of his babies, a fact he was very proud of."

He and Helen retired on October 1, 1977.

Dr Corbett was a man of the country loving hunting, fishing and shooting and was master of the Cury Hunt for many years.

His other great love was golf and he was captain of Falmouth Golf Club on a number of occasions

He was a great bridge player and was still playing, and winning, just a few weeks before his death.

He enjoyed sailing and was a member of the Flushing Sailing Club and for a short while the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club.

In his later years he took up bowling and was a member of Budock Indoor Bowling Club and Mawnan Smith Bowling Club.

"He was full of fun with a great love of life with a great deal of enthusiasm for everything he did," said Rosalind. "He did everything full on. He taught us to enjoy ourselves but work hard.

"He had many friends from all different walks of life who have all been so kind in the last year of his life."