FORMER doctor and court magistrate, Dr Frances Alders, has died at the age of 90.

Born in the small town of Harrow in Middlesex, her parents, Amelia and Fred Hill, later moved to Eltham in London where Frances went to Eltham Hill Girls’ School which was evacuated during the second world war to Abertillery, South Wales. Meanwhile her brother, Michael, who was two years younger was also evacuated before going on to study physics at Kings College London.

She returned at the end of the war which is when she went to the Royal Free Hospital to study medicine and qualify as a doctor. While on a placement in a hospital in Bournemouth, she met Nicholas Alders, consultant gynaecologist, with whom she remained in contact until they eventually married in April 1972.

Frances first worked as a GP in a practice in Banstead, Surrey, and later had her own surgeries in Cheam and Banstead where she worked until she married Nicholas. She then moved to Leven Avenue next to Meyrick Park where her husband had a house, by which time Nicholas, aged 68, had retired and Frances was 46. The couple did not have children and enjoyed travelling around the world together, visiting places including India, Norway, Madeira and America. They also liked to visit the children of brother, Michael, as well as belonging to a local music society with a mutual appreciation for classical music, visiting galleries, and studying history.

She had worked as a house physician at the former Boscombe Hospital and was credited with helping to set up the Macmillan cancer unit.

Frances was appointed to the bench in June 1976 and retired as a magistrate in August 1995. Her husband died in August 1995 and Frances moved to a flat in Elgin Road until around six years ago, when she went to live with her friend, Dr Rona Maclean, a retired consultant psychiatrist, in Surrey, who she met while studying medicine in the Royal Free Hospital. Together they visited friends in Canada and had several holidays in Scotland.

Dr Frances Alders died on May 12 and her friend, Dr Rona Maclean, died just under a month later on June 6.