Roger Shapley, school doctor at Bloxham between 1979 and 1999, passed away peacefully at the age of 82 in Katherine House, Adderbury on 23 July 2021. Roger was a much-loved and respected member of the school and local community, as well as a significant artist.
Roger was born in 1938 in Ealing. He spent a term at Edinburgh University studying French, before he moving to Hornsey College of Art for 18 months. After working as a lab technician at Harefield Hospital where he met his future wife Gill, a physiotherapist, he retrained as a doctor at the Royal Free Hospital, qualifying in 1972. Roger took on the role at Bloxham three years after arriving at West Bar Surgery in 1976, and he ‘broke in’ his successor, the present incumbent Stephen Haynes. Roger and Di Mitchell formed a formidable and unflappable team in the School hospital. Roger’s most memorable contribution to the school is probably the vital role he played in the school’s demanding Jotunheim expedition to Norway in 1996. A taste for adventure would also propel him into taking part in the London Marathon and embarking on expeditions in the Himalayas which included research into high-altitude medicine.
In his role as a family doctor and in school, Roger was noted for his caring nature and his passionate commitment to the National Health Service, as well as his concern for the welfare of children and his encouragement of those new to the medical profession. His artistic training was important in his life as a doctor; he helped the patients at Katharine House Hospice to enjoy creative art, and his paintings still hang in the corridors there. Those visiting the Chipping Norton Health Centre for their COVID vaccinations will also have seen his work. After his retirement Roger returned to his first love, drawing and painting, gaining a degree in Fine Art from de Montfort University and then honing his skills in portrait, landscape and abstract painting – always in acrylic. His work, which tended to have a strong socio-political element, was exhibited widely, both in local galleries such as the Heseltine Gallery, and, further afield, at the Royal College of Physicians in London. He said of his art that ‘It became for me not just academic but the fullest means of self-expression that I knew.’
Steve Kaplan, who was with Roger on the school’s Norway expedition in 1996, says that he always found it easy to talk to Roger – ‘He had a kind, understanding and uplifting manner. Always smiling, a wonderful person, very caring and very creative.’ Both Roger and Steve picked up ankle injuries in Norway, and according to Steve ‘we supported and motivated each other as well as others who picked up injuries.’
One Old Bloxhamist who followed Roger into the medical profession, Dr Sadie Ekers, commented that ‘He was certainly my inspiration of what and how being a GP should be. Even though I was young it was very apparent how incredibly caring and compassionate he was towards everyone he came across.’ Another, Iain Wilkinson, recalls that ‘I remember him taking the time to explain things to me once he knew I wanted to be a doctor. He was a great GP.’