A POPULAR oral and facial surgeon who helped survivors of the Hungerford massacre among hundreds of other patients has died aged 64.

John Fieldhouse, who led the expansion of the oral surgery department at the former Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), spent 30 years treating people in Swindon and also represented the profession on different committees.

As a consultant at PMH, he treated soldiers injured in the Falklands War of 1982 and also the survivors of the Hungerford massacre of 1987.

Mr Fieldhouse, of Leigh, near Cricklade, who is due to be buried today, died in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the day he was due to set off for a two-week cruise around Antarctica.

Paul Allen, who trained under Mr Fieldhouse at PMH and took over from him as the head of department, said: “The department at the time had a few staff and he built it up from quite a small department to something which the hospital and Swindon could be proud of, mainly through recruiting staff and increasing facilities.

“He was amazingly generous with his time and with his advice. He was a brilliant clinician and a superb pair of hands when you saw him operating. He was highly skilled.

”He was a very good teacher and very kind to his junior staff. He was a very good guy.”

Mr Fieldhouse joined the PMH as a consultant surgeon in about 1977 and stayed with the NHS in Swindon for 26 years, also working at Savernake Hospital in Marlborough and the Great Western Hospital (GWH).

After treating the survivors of the Hungerford massacre, Mr Fieldhouse had the honour of showing the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, around the department to meet patients. Mr Fieldhouse left the NHS in 2003 but continued to conduct private operations at the Ridgeway Hospital at Wroughton.

His son Simon Fieldhouse, 39, said: “He was an extremely generous man, medicine was his life and he spent life making other people better. That’s what doctors do and he was committed to that.

“He was extremely supportive of everyone who was close to him. Being a doctor and a surgeon, he always had the public interest at heart.

“His opinions around the NHS were always directed towards making sure the NHS was what it was meant to be, which is something for the people.”

Mr Fieldhouse died of a heart attack on January 19. The funeral is due to be held today at St Mary’s Church, Cricklade.

He is survived by his children Simon, 39, Stuart, 36, and Rebecca, 32, and grandsons Alexander, two, and Inigo, 11 months.

Donations can be made to the RNLI at http://rnli.tributefunds.com/funds /John+Fieldhouse or by calling Packer & Slade on 01285 653523.