Obituary: Vincent J Denvir

Vincent J Denvir 1929-2021 :

Proud spokesman for the Chiropody profession

Vince was born in the east end of Glasgow and was proud of his Glaswegian roots. He was educated at St Agnes’ primary school, Lambhill and then St Mungo’s High School. His father was the janitor of St Thomas’ school in Riddrie where Vince was an alter-boy in the nearby church which meant he was often called at the last minute to help with church services. He was a keen footballer and played for St Mungo’s as a schoolboy and as a former pupil.

He was conscripted to national service in the RAF in 1947 and spent 2 enjoyable years as an instrument mechanic posted to Wiltshire for training and then at Edzel in Angus. It was from his posting in Wiltshire that he wrote to the Glasgow Foot Hospital, School of Chiropody in 1949 to ask if he could be considered for a place to study the new and exciting profession of Chiropody. His letter was received sympathetically by the Principal Mr J McBain Stewart (MBE), who boasted that the school had “…rather advanced ideas of what full training should be for the chiropodist who aims at making the profession both congenial and lucrative…”. This clearly attracted his attention and he gladly accepted a place and studied with enormous enthusiasm and commitment. In typical style he kept many of the documents outlining the course syllabus which remain in good condition to this day as a unique record of what constituted chiropody training in the early 1950’s. (see supplemental files on website). It was there that he met Pat McQuony, a teacher at the school, who remained a great lifelong friend and colleague until his untimely death at the age of 58. After graduating with his diploma in chiropody he first worked at the Co-operative shoe and leather emporium in Glasgow. He was an enthusiastic teacher and was delighted to be appointed as a lecturer at the Glasgow foot hospital in 1954 where he worked for the next 6 years with Pat McQuony. He grasped his next great challenge in Stirling in 1960 when he was invited to set up the first child-school foot health service by the medical officer for health, Dr E. Neil Reid. Initially he travelled back and forth in a Ford Anglia, with only 3 forward gears and no reverse, between Glasgow and Stirling but within a year had moved with his young family to Bannockburn near Stirling. Spurred on by the newly formed NHS, he was given great support and encouragement to develop child foot health services which he did over the next 10 years. His personal enthusiasm and eye for detail helped create many novel ideas around children’s footwear and foot health education in schools (opposite)

He was a keen photographer and took hundreds of pictures of children’s feet and used these to give lectures at the Glasgow School of Chiropody throughout the 1970’s. He also gave regular talks about foot health in local schools, Mother’s clubs and community halls. He wrote a paper on the development of the child foot health service in Stirling which was published in 1971 and remains listed in major publication databases

(Denvir, V. J. “A school foot health service after 10 years.” Community Medicine 126.14 (1971): 185-9.). Information from this report was used in the “Children’s Footwear” Report of the Committee appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Cmnd 5243, March 1973) “examining the relationship between footwear prices and foot abnormalities in children” (left).

He was a very active member of the Society of Chiropodists and was on the committee for many years becoming Chairman of the Glasgow Branch in 1968. He kept almost all of the original conference programs starting in 1954 (see picture below) with names of attendees at the conference dinners. These lists provide a fabulous record of key people contributing to the development of Chiropody services in the UK between 1950 and 1980. A selection of these are included on the website as supplemental files. He chaired sessions and spoke at many of these meetings. He was a fastidious collector of information. He made detailed measurements of hundreds of children’s feet recorded on punch-cards, the pinnacle of data collection in the 1960’s. Sadly his plans to follow these children up in order to see how these early measurements influenced their adult foot health never came to fruition but it was a visionary plan well ahead of its time. He was an advisor and contributed to a parliamentary report on child foot health in 1970. He became the Chief Chiropodist for NHS Forth Valley in 1980 when his focus switched from education and patient care to service management. In typical style he applied himself diligently and with an eye for detail to create a high quality chiropody service for the people of Forth Valley.

He succeeded in persuading many self-employed practitioners to become NHS employees thus bolstering a growing service. He became an active member of the Association of Chief Chiropody Officers (ACCO) and went on to organise its annual meeting at Stirling Castle in the early 1980’s which was a great success. After guiding his service through several NHS reorganisations, he finally retired in 1992 and was replaced by a trusted successor, Joyce Brown. He spent his retirement playing golf, repairing all kinds of electrical and mechanical objects, travelling, tending to his beloved roses and caring for his grandchildren. He remained fit and well until his late 80’s when he sadly developed Alzheimer’s disease. He died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 91. He is predeceased by his loving wife Veronica (Ronnie) and leaves 4 sons, 11 grandchildren and one great grandson. He should be remembered as being deeply proud of his professional life at an important time in the history of chiropody as it developed high professional standards and became increasingly recognised as a key part of adult and children health services in the UK.

Martin Denvir