In the age when family doctors were on call 24 hours a day, “Nobby” Clark was the GP par excellence. The Christchurch doctor took surgery in his own home and made house calls at all hours for nearly 50 years, until retiring at 82.

Daughters Jenny and Nicky remember their father coming in from surgery each evening exactly at 6pm for dinner, then going back at 6.30.

A medical officer in World War 2, Clark somehow found time also for mountaineering and tramping, breeding and writing about pigeons, studying and writing local history, dabbling in painting and investments, collecting art works, playing squash and tennis, reading, gardening and appreciating music.

He died in Christchurch recently aged 91. He lived most of his life almost opposite Calvary (later Southern Cross) Hospital in Bealey Avenue and close to Christchurch Women's Hospital. There, his father, a self-made man who had emigrated from Britain and set up several wool scours in the South Island, had settled on a large section. Clark later built a Heathcote Helmore-designed house for himself and family beside the old home.

While being close to hospitals had advantages, it also led to many late-night rushes to the wards. His daughters remember the night a woman arrived with severe stomach pains. Clark diagnosed advanced pregnancy and rushed her through a neighbour's back garden to the women's hospital.

Educated at Dunelm Preparatory School and Christ's College, Clark graduated with a BSc from Canterbury University in 1935. He did medical studies at Otago University and, after graduating in 1941, became a house surgeon at Christchurch Hospital.

Clark married Erica Macfarlane, a nurse at the hospital, shortly before his conscription into the army in 1942. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the NZ Medical Corps and served in the Pacific. He was promoted to Captain in 1943.

An interest in respiratory disorders led him to apply for positions at the Pukeora Sanitorium in Hawkes Bay, when Tb was prevalent. He served there as assistant medical superintendent from 1945 to 1947. His research and work in respiratory health, and the thesis he wrote, gained him his MD in 1948.

He then took his family to England, where he did further studies in 1949-1950, with a view to specialising. However, he decided general practice was for him and returned to Christchurch. As a relic of his interests, he bought an X-ray machine and had to enlarge the house to accommodate it.

Blissful school holidays spent with friends at Tasman Downs station, near Mount Cook, sparked Clark's interest in mountaineering. He worked as a guide at Franz Josef Glacier during university holidays.

He climbed Mount Cook in 1935 and was part of a NZ Alpine Club expedition about to set off for the Himalayas to climb the world's third highest mountain, Kangchenjunga, when war broke out. Clark had done detailed research on the physiological effects of high altitude in preparation for the climb.

He continued tramping after the war and, at 65, led a party over the demanding Copland Pass in the Southern Alps. He bought a garage at Arthurs Pass and converted it into a family bach.

The kind of research Clark did for the Himalayas expedition was typical of his thoroughness and attention to detail, his daughters say. He brought this approach to pigeon fancying, where he used the study of genetics to improve his large stock of birds. Books he wrote on breeding pigeons were in demand around the world.

As a long-time resident of Bealey Avenue, he wrote a history of the properties along this street (first known as the North Belt), in 1976. The book was well received and is still used by researchers and genealogists. He followed it in 1979 with a similar history of Rolleston Avenue and Park Terrace (West Belt).

His medical practice was busy but, when Clark managed to have some time to himself, he could still be found hard at work in his surgery, his daughters say. Usually he would be researching or working on one of his many interests. When he took holidays, he and his wife loved to travel abroad and take in opera.

He was a quiet and reserved man, surprisingly shy for one of such accomplishments. He and his wife mixed with a steady group of friends, enjoying tennis parties well into their 70s.