Dr Joseph Manuel Bozzino
Dr Joseph Manuel Bozzino
Joseph was born in Algeciras, Spain, to a Gibraltarian father and a Spanish mother, from whom he inherited an admiration of all things British and a love of fine food and wine.
Soon after his birth, Gibraltar was evacuated; he was taken on the MS. Batory (the ‘Lucky Ship’) to England, where he spent the course of the War. On his return to Spain, he continued his education in Gibraltar, commuting every day across the Bay of Algeciras, safe on the bridge with the Captain – an arrangement he clearly enjoyed. He sat his A Levels in Dulwich, from where he went to University College, London to study medicine, embracing student life to the full. His last three years were completed at the University of Malta, graduating in 1969. He felt at home in Malta, enjoying similarities with Gibraltar, made life-long friendships, and edited the medical faculty magazine. During his studies he met and married a Maltese girl and, upon his graduation, they sailed to New York where he worked at the French hospital. Manhattan being a violent place at that time, he spent a fair amount of his emergency room shifts in ambulances, dealing with shootings and stabbings.
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13th December 1940 to 1st September 2019
After two years, he returned to England to work in the health system he believed in and had always wanted to be part of. He had also decided to specialise in oncology, driven in part by a personal experience. He worked in various hospitals on the South Coast as well as the Royal Marsden, commuting weekly from Plymouth. From there he went to Newcastle upon Tyne, where his final appointment was as consultant oncologist, practicing there for thirty years. He had large clinics in Whitehaven and South Shields, as well as Newcastle General Hospital. Many of his grateful patients still emailed or wrote to him for years after their treatment had finished.
He retired earlier than he would have wished, disillusioned with some of the changes and the cost pressures of the NHS which had forced his hand when recommending a course of treatment, but overall very appreciative of his colleagues and staff and optimistic about the prospects for even greater success when treating cancer over the coming years.
He and his wife retired to Malta; oncology being a difficult specialisation to continue part time, he devoted his retirement to travelling and learning more about the military history of the island as well as the Eastern Catholic Rite. He learnt enough Greek to enable him to start attending services at the Greek Catholic Church in Valletta. He loved his old house in the village with its large mature Mediterranean garden. He revitalised the orange trees and planted olive trees and pomegranates, and he derived an enormous amount of pleasure and satisfaction from that work. He visited the UK every year, and latterly had the pleasure of seeing his grandchildren grow.
Above everything else he was a beloved husband, father, grandfather and a dedicated, committed, caring doctor. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
