Harry Graham Corbett 1920 - 2008

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that I have not posted many items over the last 10 days. This is because my father, Harry Graham Corbett, sadly passed away on 2 June. He had been in decline for some time, but in the end went quite suddenly and painlessly, aged 88. None the less, it was a painful loss to my mother, me, my brother and our children.

Born into a family of steelworkers in 1920, my father won a place at university which he was unable to take up, as his family couldn't afford it. He became a statistician, joining the General Registrar Office after the war, specialising in health statistics (and helping establish the link between smoking and various diseases), later with the World Health Organisation, where he developed the International Classification of Diseases, now used for health statistics all over the world.

My father was the very incarnation of decency. All his life, he strove to do what he saw, after careful consideration, as the right thing. In the war, he was a conscienscious objector, but volunteered for front-line service first on bomb disposal and then as a medical officer, parachuted on D-day at Pegasus bridge. Captured by the Germans, he was a prisoner of war in what is now Poland for nearly a year, where he refused to leave the sick prisoners when the Germans retreated, staying with them until the Russians arrived and evacuated them through ruined towns and villags to Odessa.

He did the right thing by his family, always supporting us, advising without imposing, listening before advising, keeping meticulous records.

Although he was never politically active, he followed politics closely, and was a strong (though not uncritical!) Labour supporter. He had a strong sense of social justice.

All his life, he gave to charities, and my mother has selected one, the Salvation Army, which people can give to in his memory here