After 217 years, the last Dr Maurice of Marlborough hangs up his stethoscope

For more than 200 years when anyone in the Wiltshire market town of Marlborough fell ill it was easy to know whom to turn to: Dr Maurice, the local GP.

In an extraordinary unbroken line stretching back to back to the height of the French Revolution, members of the Maurice family have served at the local medical practice since 1792.



But now, after six generations of Dr Maurices tending the town's sick, the last of the line, Dr David Maurice, 59, the senior partner at the Marlborough Medical Practice, is preparing to retire.



His son, James, has also just qualified in the profession but, in something of a break with family tradition, is planning to spend his career as a hospital doctor.

For Dr Maurice senior, who is also a part time Anglican clergyman, the advent of a new culture of "bean counting" in the NHS as a result of the new GP contracts was decisive in his decision to retire early.