ABSTRACT
John French Burdon felt strongly about vocational training and the continued education of general practitioners. He made several suggestions on how postgraduates could be trained for a career in general practice. Burdon had further roles within the College. He was an active member of the College’s South West England Faculty and served as the chairman of that faculty from 1974 to 1976 and was also provost from 1978 to 1979, the highest honorary post in one of the biggest Faculties in the College. The purpose of the examination would be to: Test knowledge of family doctoring, and thus serve to indicate technical competence. In 1967, he joined the Editorial Board which was the same year that the journal’s name changed to the Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners. When he retired to Denbury near Newton Abbot, Burdon edited the parish magazine with his usual care and became a general handyman to the parish.
