"A very special village doctor" died peacefully at her Elstree home on Wednesday last week, aged 94.

Dr G Winn Everett of Schopwick, Elstree High Street, leaves behind many friends -- not least from St Nicholas Church in the village, which enjoyed her regular and faithful support for many years, and where she was baptised.

Rector at St Nicholas Church, Rev Bill Elliott, this week paid tribute to his late friend, who was the daughter of journalist Sir Percy Everett, second-in-command to Lord Baden Powell in the Boy Scout movement.

"While Dr Everett lived with her parents in Barnet Lane, Lord Baden Powell would often visit them. She thought, as a little girl, he had always come to play with her, not to see her father."

Rev Elliott said Winn, as she was known to her friends, pioneered women's medicine in Elstree, after setting up her own surgery in the village with her father's agreement.

She was also a member and supporter of the Guide and Scout movement. The doctor, who was born on February 6 1903, was taken ill soon after Christmas last year, and until her death she had been in and out of hospital.

"She rather regretted the coming of the National Health Service. Prior to that patient A, who was on hard times, had free treatment, while patient B, well provided for, paid for both. Almost certainly neither of the patients knew how the system worked."

Rev Elliott said Dr Everett's immediate family, of niece and nephew, together with great nieces and great-great nieces and nephews have always looked upon her as the head of the family. Christmas at Schopwick was a byword for family fun, he added. "Friends and family have always been welcome at her house, so there is a very wide circle of people who will miss her."

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