Obituary | A clinic on the pavement Jack Preger wanted to serve no one but the poor
Obituary | A clinic on the pavement Jack Preger wanted to serve no one but the poor The doctor who tended Kolkata’s destitute died on October 31st, aged 96 Save Share Photograph: Mark McEvoy Nov 12th 2026 | 6 min read Listen to this story AI Narrated H e had gone out to spread manure, that was all. As his tractor bumped over the stony ground of his farm in west Wales, Jack Preger didn’t have his mind on much except farming. Though he was a city boy from Manchester, a Jewish grocer’s son, he loved working the land. And from his piece of it, right on the coast, you could look across the sea to Ireland. Then it happened. It was not a voice, exactly. It was more as if his skull had been laid open, and the words put in: “Become a doctor.” This was an order he knew he could not ignore. That very night he sat down and applied to a whole list of medical schools. Success was not likely; he had no science qualifications, had read PPE at Oxford and was 34, very old to be starting out. But the R...
