IZINDABA

OBITUARY

Ronald Ferguson Ingle (1927 - 2022)

Ronald Ferguson Ingle was a senior lecturer in family medicine at the Medical University of South Africa (Medunsa). He was born 1927, and qualified in Cambridge and London in 1952, earning an MA, MB and Bchir. He died from frailty of old age on 28 July 2022.

Ronald Ingle was a big man, physically and intellectually. He based his actions on the realities that he lived, experienced and observed.

People who shared his life at different periods will write completely different stories. His obituary written by a friend, David Goodridge, in the British Medical Journal published on 2 September 2022^[1] gives an excellent description of his long and colourful career, as well as his interests and accomplishments. He was born as a missionary child in China in 1927, and he was schooled in the UK during World War II. He then undertook medical studies in Cambridge and at London King's College. Ronald worked as a medical officer in the Royal Airforce in Malaysia, and came out to All Saints Hospital in the Transkei. There he joined Pauline Marshall, the superintendent, as the second doctor. He married Pauline in 1957.

During his time in the Transkei, Ronald performed much-needed surgical services to the community. In 1977, he moved to the Transkei Department of Health as Deputy Secretary of Health in then Umtata. While there, he worked on tuberculosis control as well as medical management, health education and epidemiology. In the transition from mission hospitals to government-run health services, Ronald took the lead as Chairman of Consultative Committee for South African Medical Missions (CCSAMM) to mediate between widely different views and values towards a workable healthcare system. His contributions were valuable, and promoted a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to healthcare.

In 1987, he joined the Department of Family Medicine at Medunsa under Prof. Sam Fehrsen. This is where we worked, argued, laughed and lived with Ronald.

For us, the story of Ron Ingle is that of a man who approached life and medicine with a positive and enquiring mind. He always looked at things at a deeper level. One of the things that stands out for us is when he initiated community engagement to deal with child malnutrition in the hospital. Here he developed a passion for health education. This led to him doing a formal course in isiXhosa.

In the early 1990s at the dawn of the computer age, before Microsoft and Google, Ronald, as the oldest colleague in the group, led us with Nota Bene in learning word processing, searching, digital record keeping, ICP coding and weekly and monthly patient information reviews.

His life outside of medicine included writing, singing, woodworking, sailing, rugby, hiking, touring, birding, photography and painting. Ronald was instrumental in reworking the thousands of excellent ethnographic Transkei photographs by Pauline into the digitised Piper Collection. This became a permanent exhibition at the University of Fort Hare, and is now available on Africamediaonline.com.^[2] This demonstrates Ron's care, thoughtfulness, determination and wisdom.

One way to describe Ron is the straight un-English man. At times he could be quite intimidating, recognising sloppy thinking, and would give you a serious look over his glasses, before challenging you with incisive questions. This was his way of helping us and students with problem solving.

Pauline died in 1999, and Ron later moved to Hillcrest in KwaZulu-Natal. He later shared his life with Gill Brown. Until his death, Ron was busy writing and painting. In 2016 he published All Saints Letters Home from a Transkei Mission Hospital 1958 - 1976. We will always remember our visits to Ron and Gill as joyful and filled with good food, bread baked by Ron and engaging conversation. Ron will always be remembered fondly by his colleagues and students.

Jannie Hugo

Manfred Teichler

Chris Ellis

Ansie Olivier

References

1. David Goodrich. Ronald Ferguson Ingle. BMJ 2022;378:o2043. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o2043.         [ Links ]

2. African Pictures. The Piper Collection. https://african.pictures/galleries/the-piper-collection/ (accessed 12 July 2017).         [ Links ]