May 27, 2021 3.25 pm This story is over 34 months old

People line the streets in tribute for funeral of much-loved Lincoln GP

Rest in peace John
The streets were lined with people paying their respects to Dr John Nattrass. | Photos: Kerry Louise Maclean

Friends, family, former colleagues, and patients lined the streets as a funeral procession was held in Lincoln on Thursday for the much-loved founder of a local GP practice.

Dr John Nattrass started a surgery on Woodfield Avenue in Birchwood from a flat after moving to Lincoln from Rotherham. He later moved to a portacabin on Fulmar Road before founding the Woodland Medical Practice in Birchwood.

He retired from the practice 25 years ago to look after his first wife, who sadly passed away. John died at the age of 86 on May 2. It is understood this is from a bleed to the brain. He leaves behind his second wife, four children and 12 grandchildren.

Dr John Nattrass, who founded Woodland Medical Practice in Birchwood, sadly died in May 2021.

People lined different streets on the route and near Woodlands Medical Practice to pay their respects to John.

His wife Vicky Collins-Nattrass paid tribute to him when she announced his death on social media to “all who were patients” of John, which prompted nearly 350 messages of condolences and tributes.

She said: “Whenever we went out shopping someone always spoke to him and told him how much he was missed. He was a dedicated doctor in the days when they did 60 hour weeks and their own night calls.”

Kerry Louise Maclean was a friend of John’s and one of his carers at Lincoln-based Heart to Heart. She told The Lincolnite: “You couldn’t not build a friendship with him he was so laid back.

“He was a kind, caring man and a fantastic doctor, loving husband, father, and a great big fan of his dogs. He kept strong until the very end and always smiled.”

Meanwhile, there was also another funeral procession for a different man at a similar time on Thursday in the South Park area of Lincoln.

Police said the funeral took place at 12pm with a walking procession following the hearse from St Peter & St Paul Catholic Church on Skellingthorpe Road in Lincoln to the Washingborough Road Caravan Site between 1pm and 2.10pm.

The family walked along Rookery Lane, Newark Road, South Park and Canwick Hill, with the coffin carried to the nearby crematorium and burial site.