A former chief pathologist at Noble’s Hospital celebrated his 100th birthday at Peel Golf Club at the weekend.

Dr Cyril Partington, who lives in Kirk Michael, was born on March 31 in 1917 in the Wirral.

His father used to rent a house next to Braddan Church for summer use by his family and this was where a young Cyril developed his love of the island.

Cyril went to school in England and was a medical student at Liverpool University when the Second World War began. Part of his role was to assist on ambulance duty and attend bomb sites to assist in the care of victims, as well as assisting in the operating rooms.

During one attack in 1941, the Mill Road Hospital where he was working was destroyed by bombing and many staff and patients were killed.

Cyril was one of two students who were allowed to graduate one year early as the army was desperately in need of doctors.

He qualified as a pathologist and was the youngest consultant in the National Health Service when it came into being.

Cyril met his first wife, Mary, at university and she also became a doctor.

They went to Canada in 1952 and he set up a new laboratory at the Sarnia General Hospital in Ontario.

The couple had two children, Ann and John, who still live in Canada.

By 1965 he had returned to the UK and became a lecturer in medicine at Bristol University.

He returned to the island in 1971 and eventually took over as chief pathologist at Noble’s Hospital.

Mary died in 1993 but Cyril got married again, to Phil, who died four years ago.

Dr Partington continued to attend lectures and assist in the Noble’s pathology department until he was in his nineties, when he finally retired.