FORMER York GP Peter Dench - brother of actress Dame Judi Dench - has died, aged 91.

Dr Dench was educated at St Peter’s School, where his sister was first inspired to act while watching him and his brother perform in the school play, Anthony and Cleopatra.

His father, Reginald, was a GP in York and Peter decided to follow in his footsteps, studying medicine at Cambridge before serving as a doctor for the Green Howards while doing his National Service.

He became one of the first medics ever to use a military helicopter while the army was dealing with the Malayan conflict, said his family.

He had married Daphne, a French refugee living in York, six months before he went to Malaya and they spent three years apart.

Back in York, he worked at a maternity hospital in Acomb for a year before becoming a GP, working at surgeries in Priory Street, Rawcliffe Lane and then Kingsway North. His surgery was based for about a decade within the family home in Rawcliffe Lane, with his wife fielding night calls.

He spent the final decade of his career in the more relaxed setting of Green Hammerton.

York Press:

Dr Dench also served for many years as a doctor in the Territorial Army, as a Colonel in the 250 Field Ambulance based at Hull, and would go away with the TA for a fortnight each year. He went down to Buckingham Palace in 1977 to receive the Territorial Decoration, awarded for long service.

When he retired, he decided to work as a guide at York Minster. His family said he had vowed never to take another exam after qualifying as a doctor, but had to take one to become a guide.

There was one question bothering him and he came downstairs in the middle of the night to look in his books to find the answer, and said he had never done that with a medical dilemma.

They said he passed the exam and worked at the Minster until his mid-80s, regularly doing the Wednesday afternoon shift.

His wife Daphne died in 2013 after 63 years of ‘extremely happy’ marriage, they said.

His children Simon and Louise said he had remained fit and active until very recently, walking on Sandsend beach on New Year’s Day.

He had also been able to watch his sister at the National Railway Museum just autumn, playing Queen Victoria in a scene for a new film, Victoria and Abdul.

Simon said his father was always really close to Dame Judi, and had been ‘immensely proud’ of her acting achievements, and of his younger brother Jeffrey, also a Shakespearean actor, who died in 2014.

*Dr Dench’s funeral will take place at York Crematorium at 1pm on Friday February 3.