Lifetime of devotion

WEDDING day . . . Dermot and Margaret McCracken on their big day in 1947

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A GREENFIELD couple who devoted their lives to caring for others have died.

Margaret McCracken, a former Liberal councillor for Saddleworth, died on August 7, aged 86.

Her husband Dermot McCracken, a Greenfield GP for 12 years, died just 15 days later aged 89.

Born in 1921, Mrs McCracken attended St Mary’s School using slate and a marker during lessons.

From a young age, she was determined to study medicine after being cared for by local GP Dr Cameron.

While at Hulme Grammar School for girls, she had to join the boys in the sixth form to study physics before qualifying as a doctor in 1944 from Manchester University.

Mr McCracken was born in 1919 and grew up in South Wales.

The keen cyclist studied medicine at Cardiff University and qualified in 1942 before meeting his future wife in August, 1946.

Elizabeth Protheroe, their eldest daughter, said: “My mother was working as a medical officer at Sully Hospital in the Vale of Glamorgan.

“My father was teaching in Cardiff but would use the surgeon’s room in the hospital to have a coffee.

“It was there that he spied my mother’s eyes above the surgical mask and must have liked what he saw.”

A whirlwind engagement followed and the couple married at Greenfield Methodist Church on April 3,1947, before moving to the area a year later.

Mr McCracken was one of two local GPs serving the Greenfield area between 1950 and 1962, while Mrs McCracken served as a councillor for Saddleworth Urban District Council.

The couple had four children Elizabeth (60), Robert (58), Sara (56) and Justin (53).

Mrs Protheroe said: “My father was a committed, old-fashioned GP who held several surgeries a day, made home visits and gave devoted care to all his patients.

“He had to face really bad weather, sometimes dumping his car and walking through snow-covered fields to get to patients.”

The family moved to Leeds in 1962 where Mr McCracken worked for the student health service at Leeds University until retirement.

Mrs McCracken also worked looking after children with special needs and worked for the Yorkshire Breast Cancer Group.

After retiring the couple moved to Coniston in the Lake District, but moved to Bristol in 1986 following a period of ill health to be closer to their eldest daughter.

They celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in 2007 and doted on their eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Mrs Protheroe said: “We are very grateful for the fact we had them for so many years.

“They lived by and believed in very strong traditional values such as honesty, integrity, hard work and education.”

Thanksgiving services were held in Bristol on August 14 and 30.