We are very grateful to Dr. Snead's son and ON Martin Snead for sharing the following about his father's life along with a lovely photo of Dr. Snead at work in his surgery.

Dr. Alan Snead (19/11/33 – 27/4/19)

Dr. Alan Snead passed away peacefully aged 85yr surrounded by his family. He qualified in medicine from Birmingham University and after National Service and a brief sojourn in Obstetrics moved to join the Wellington Road practice as replacement GP for Dr. Sowerbutts in 1969. 

Alan believed strongly in giving to the community and was a committee member and Chairman of the Newport branch of the RNLI for over 20yrs and became a school governor for Adams in 1977 playing a key role in saving the school from closing in the late 1970s and securing a grant-maintained status in the 1980s. He continued to be an active governor of the school in the 1990s, stepping down as Chairman of Governors in 1995.

Besides medicine he was a highly skilled engineer driving and maintaining a Velocette Venom and Riley Lynx as well as building a working model Allchin traction engine. He enjoyed field sports and outdoor pursuits on more than one occasion arriving back on Monday morning after a night’s seatrout fishing for a quick shower and change before starting his morning surgery. He worked in an era when GPs carried out all their own home visits, often remarking that “you see the real medicine at night” and gradually accruing an encyclopaedic knowledge of addresses in the various villages around Newport whose houses were simply numbered in the order that they were built. He also carried out minor operations and developed his own X-rays for patients at the Cottage hospital (now Newport Cottage Care Centre).

Alan was pre-deceased by his devoted wife Shirley who passed away in 2018 and they are survived by daughter Ruth, three sons Martin, David and John (all of whom attended Adams) and nine grandchildren to all of whom they were devoted.