DR Colin Starkie has played an incredible role in the medical and social history of Wyre Forest district.

A school, Kidderminster and district medical officer for almost 30 years, he was responsible for the creation of the area's first family planning clinic and the first doctor-led ante-natal clinic.

He started the first anti-smoking campaign in the area - he knew of the dangers through patients and his parents who smoked, well before they were scientifically proven - started infancy welfare classes in schools and campaigned for fluoridation of water.

His father was a dentist and he had seen problems of tooth decay through his own work as an anaesthetist in the schools' dental programme.

As medical officer, he was responsible for immunising children against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and tuberculosis. He carried out tests, finding which problems were due to deafness or poor eyesight and deciding which children needed to go to Stourminster School where his wife Joy was governor.

He also ran into his wife in her position as chairman of the bench at Kidderminster magistrates. "She had to go around and check on the public houses," he explained. "If they were in a bad condition she would report them to the medical officer, and that was me!"

A strong believer in the link between poor housing and bad health, Dr Starkie was instrumental in slum clearance, having condemned more than 100 buildings in the area.

Pollution control, refuse disposal, food hygiene and inspecting nursing homes and creches were also in his wide-ranging remit.

Dr Starkie was brought up in Cheshire and was a medical officer in Manchester. He served as a major in the army in the Second World War treating typhus fever, diphtheria, but mainly venereal disease among soldiers. He also battled the threat of bubonic plague in North Africa.

He settled in Kidderminster where his two daughters grew up. He now has six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren with another expected over the holiday period.

He was a founder member and the first chairman of the Kidderminster Probus Club for retired professionals and helped create the Kidderminster Association for Welfare of Old People at the Tulip Tree Centre which later became Age Concern.

He was also president of Kidderminster Medical Society of which he is now a life member. Now a sprightly 91-year-old, Dr Starkie's interests include bowling, gardening and woodwork, with examples of this work adorning his Kidderminster home.