John Raymond Hobbs - Early Life

Early Life

John Hobbs was born in Aldershot. He was the third son of four male children of a soldier’s family. His family moved around considerably due to his father’s career in the British Army. The family eventually settled in his father's home town of Plymouth in the county of Devon. During the Second World War, John, along with his three brothers Frederick, William and Dennis, were evacuated from blitz-torn Plymouth to Penzance. He left school at 16 and worked as a pathology laboratory assistant and did his National Service in Egypt with the British Army Medical Corps. After National Service, John used the money he had saved from his army sergeant’s pay to put himself into Plymouth and Devonport Technical College where he achieved an External Inter.B.Sc. within 9 months, gaining a state scholarship to study medicine, where he chose the Middlesex Hospital in London and won 7 prizes. From 1968–1996 Dr Hobbs received 4 national prizes, 15 international awards and 4 honorary fellowships