Maurice Hugh Drummond was born in 1926, the third child and only son of Maurice Drummond, consultant dermatologist to the Richmond Hospital in Dublin. His early education was at Xavier School in Donnybrook. During World War II he went on to Clongowes where he enjoyed rugby: he packed down in the second row.
Those were the days of "the Emergency" and Hugh joined the Local Defence Force, or LDF, where he stood out from the ranks of the fifth and sixth years as one of the few who could handle a rifle: Corporal Drummond taught the rest of us to fire a "303" - one shot only per man. Hugh's experience with a shot gun in his mother's place at Rathaldron Castle beside the Boyne near Navan had borne fruit.
As a medical student in UCD, Hugh complemented his studies with farming in Rathaldron, some tennis and a busy social life. When a friend repeated to him the advice of an elder that "one should not confuse being busy with work" there was a mutual silence of disbelief at such irrelevant wisdom. Qualifying in 1952, Hugh then worked in his father's hospital, the Richmond. When residency parties were held there in "the Convent" the only reliable man behind the bar was Hugh, immaculate in a long white apron.
Following resident posts in the Royal Hospital in Donnybrook and in Leopardstown Park Hospital, he went to England to train in dermatology and soon became a consultant in Clatterbridge Hospital. In 1960 Hugh married Patricia Coughlan and their family was brought up in their Heswall home in Cheshire. Holiday visits to Ireland became more frequent when the Drummonds bought a country house in Shrule right beside the river in Co Longford: this was in 1973. Retirement from England came in 1992 and Shrule became their permanent home.
Relaxed, friendly, abounding in charity, everyone came away from an encounter with Hugh feeling more cheerful. When illness hit the family or himself, there were no recriminations. Despite his own problems Hugh was quick to write to mourning friends. His last visit to Portiuncula Hospital was mercifully brief.
Hugh Drummond died in the spring of 1998 and lies at peace in Shrule Cemetery, just yards from the river and his home.
His widow Patricia, their children Katherine, Paula, Declan, Blaise and Louisa, their grandchildren, and his sister Beatrice have the sympathy of very many and the shared memory of a unique and well-loved gentleman.