Dr Ludwig Engel

Ludwig was born into a well-off family in Oppeln, Upper Silesia. He had a priveliged upbringing and talked of family holidays on the Black Sea and also in Amalfi, south of Naples.

The First World War arrived and military service followed secondary education. Ludwig was assigned to a heavy gun battery where he was a gunnery observer. There are pictures of him in uniform and of the gun battery. Apparently his mother, Else, used to send boxes of 'Engel' cigars (from the family factory) to his commanding officers with letters pleading for them to keep him away from danger. It seemed to work but he still managed to shoot himself during rifle practice when a richochet bullet bounced off a metal post and hit him on the ear.

The big artillery pieces played havoc with the crockery in the mess hall and it was one day in the mess hall that he saw a poster requesting volunteers for teaching morse code. Overnight he learned Morse code, passed the test and was promoted from gunner to Morse code instructor well back from the lines. A few days later the gun battery he had been in took a direct hit and many were killed. His promotion saved his life.

In the spring of 1918 he met his future wife, Johanna Bobisch.

In January 1919 he began a medical degree University in Heidelberg, having briefly studied law there in 1916. In the summer of 1920 he and Johanna married and took his final exams in December 1921, qualifying as a doctor. Returning to Silesia he established a medical practice in Breslau where both his children, Peter (May 1922) and Eliza ( Aug 1925) were born.

After divorcing Johanna Bobisch (1934) he emigrated to England with his new wife Hildegard Steinke and son Peter. His second son Andrew was born in London in 1938. As a German national he was interned during the war and was deported to Ontario in Canada. On returning, he established a medical practice and rented a consulting room in Harley Street.

Ludwig and Hindegard set up home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, first in Ferndale and then (in the early 1960s) in Blatchington Road. The consulting room was in the house and patients waited in the dining room.

Ludwig always kept tortoises, some of which he personally collected in Greece. Also goldfish, tropical fish and budgies. He was a keen mountaineer, spending several weeks in the Alps every summer and doing so well into his 80's, He was also very inventive and was always making home-made contraptions to solve the sort of problems that most people would never even realise existed.

Above all, his wicked, often cruel, sense of humour is what he was known for. Elaborate practical jokes ugainst the unsespecting or gullible amused him greatly.

He practised homeopathy, was involved in anthroposophy and was a regular church attender.