A MAN whose skills and compassion earned him friends and respect in the county has died aged 80, writes CATHERINE SHOVLIN.

Dr Robert Lewis Armitstead had practised in Leominster for 25 years before retiring in March 1984.

During that time, he was also a familiar face at Hereford Eye Hospital where, once a week, he got to pursue his special interest in this area of medicine as a clinical assistant.

And even after closing the door on his surgery, his colleagues and patients refused to forget him.

The son of an entrepreneurial confectioner, he spent most of his childhood in Cumbria, where his love of the countryside and fishing, an attraction of this county, had been kindled.

A man of deep Christian convictions, he gained his medical degree from Manchester University in 1945.

After serving as a captain in the army medical corp, Dr Armitstead eventually moved to Leominster in 1958 where he ran his practice from Church Street.

Committed to his profession, he was rarely off duty, often getting called out in the middle of the night to remote rural properties. Before long he had got to know the area as well as he knew the people who lived there.

Market days were a particularly busy time in the surgery, but he never let that interfere with his approach to each patient.

And it was not just as a GP that he got to show his compassion and love of people. He was active in the community, particularly serving it as a member of the Rotary Club.

But his greatest love was for his family, who supported him as Parkinson's Disease reduced the level at which he could pursue his interests. The illness was diagnosed just before he retired.

He is survived by his wife Margaret, four children and seven grandchildren.