Worksop: Dentist awarded MBE in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Dr Paul Liddiard, who used to work at Dungannon dental practice, Watson Road, but now lives in Jersey, has been recognised for his servives to dentistry.

Dr Liddiard, who used to live on Thievesdale Lane, has volunteered his services all over the world, including Nepal, Bolivia, Peru, Romania and the Amazon rainforest.

The 76-year-old made six tours over a three-month period to Phuket, Thailand, after the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, and he was also in Ukraine last year after the MH17 disaster.

“The award was a bolt out of the blue, completely unexpected,” he said.

“On reflection, it is good that my work has been recognised and to bring to greater attention the dental plight that many native populations continue to suffer.”

Dr Liddiard first lived in Worksop in 1946, when his father, who was a recently demobbed RAF dental surgeon, bought the Dungannon practice.

After qualifying as a dentist in 1965, Dr Liddiard returned to Worksop as a young associate at Dungannon for three years.

He married his late wife Sally in the same year, who was a registered nurse at Guy’s Hospital in London, where Dr Liddiard had studied dentistry.

“In 1994, Sally and I did an Annapurna trek in Nepal,” he said. I was advised to take dental instruments with me as they may be useful. We were to trek through isolated villages. It was on this journey that I began to appreciate the need for emergency dental treatments for those in pain who cannot receive treatment because of their isolation, and the cost. They had no money.”