Sergei William (Bill) Kadleigh M.B. B.S. M.R.C.S. L.R.C.P. (29 August 1945 – 18 June 1972) was an homeopath at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital where he was an Assistant to, and friend of, Margery Grace Blackie. He was one of sixteen homeopaths who died in the Staines Trident air disaster in June, 1972.
Homeopaths and homeopathic supporters including Isabel Campbell, Dudley Wooton Everitt, Marjorie Golomb
, Elizabeth Sharp Hawthorn, sisters Kawther Theresa Kandalla and Ludi Marylone Kandalla, Joan Mackover, John Robertson Raeside, Mary Stevenson, Elizabeth Somerville Stewart and Thomas Fergus Stewart, also died in that fatal crash.
Sergei William Kadleigh was the only son of Russian-born British architect Sergei George Kadleigh (1915 – 1998) and his wife Lesbia Mary Church (1916 – 1997).
In January, 1971, Kadleigh was elected as an Associate Member of the Faculty of Homeopathy.
Sergei William Kadleigh’s Obituary was provided by his friend and colleague, Dr. Margery Grace Blackie, in the British Homeopathic Journal vol. 61, no. 4. (October, 1972), page 252:
Dr. Kadleigh first came to attend one of the intensive courses of the Faculty, and from that moment on was enthusiastic to learn more about Homœopathy, as he felt that it was what he was looking for. Since then he first helped Dr. Priestman with visiting patients south of the Park, and came at least once a week, sometimes oftener, to sit in my practice. He also attended every possible lecture. He loved general practice and this is what he wanted to do. He would indeed have been an expert homœopathic physician. He had a real flair for Homœopathy, and his was such a particularly charming personality that he got on with everyone. After finishing a hospital job he came into my practice as a full-time assistant and, as he said, he enjoyed every minute. We found him most congenial and co-operative to work with, and the patients loved him. After only a month in the practice we received letters from dozens of patients telling of his sympathy and understanding. We have certainly lost a most outstanding homœopathic physician and his friends are coming to inquire about Homœopathy because “Bill” found it so inspiring and so satisfying.
From Anita Davies, in British Homeopathic Journal vol. 61, no. 4 (October, 1972) page 254:
Dr. Kadleigh was also an unusual person, a bright star set for but a short time in this world, and though I worked with him for only two weeks, his ardent curiosity was inspiring; he had unusual healing powers and the patients who saw him could not forget him. His interest in Homœopathy which led him to join the group going to the Brussels Congress, would have served the Hospital and Faculty well.
Memorial Address, given by Dr. Llewelyn Ralph Twentyman, at the Memorial Service commemorating those who died in the aircraft disaster. Held at the church of St. George the Martyr, Queen Square, London W.C.1, on Thursday, 29 June, 1972. Printed in the British Homeopathic Journal vol. 61, no. 3 (July, 1972), pages 130-133:
And now, young doctor, young among us, WILLIAM KADLEIGH, brilliant, full of promise, like a star that darts across this world. It is hard; it is hard for all who know such a person when suddenly he is no more here for us to take delight in. Yet we must somehow take the treasure of their being and their meaning, and honour it and lift it up. Strange are the ways of our fates.
Of interest:
Sergei George Kadleigh AA Dipl. (Hons), ARIBS (6 August 1915 – 7 December 1998), father of Sergei William Kadleigh, was a noted Russian-born British architect who was in partnership with Professor Patrick Horsbrugh (in Kadleigh, Horsburgh & Whitfield). He also worked with Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry.
The William Kadleigh Memorial Fund supports young homeopathic doctors. A former Chairman of the Fund was John Stephen Hughes Games. The William Kadleigh Memorial Fund is an unregistered connected charity whose capital funds are held and managed by Homeopathy UK on behalf of the Kadleigh Committee. The committee determine the disposition of funds and report at least annually.
There was a William Kadleigh Academic Department of Homeopathic Medicine at the Bristol Homeopathic Hospital
Dear Sue,
Bill Kadleigh was my closest friend from the age of 8 when we both arrived at the same boarding school in Bedfordshire, right through public school at Uppingham Rutland, and then to London University where I read engineering at Imperial College, and Bill medicine at Barts. We shared his parents flat in South Kensington for some time during this period in the sixties.
I knew his Russian grandmother (‘Dub’), his mother Leslie (a brilliant painter), and his father Segei (an architect), who introduced Bill and I to Boulestin Restaurant in Covent Garden, where we went many times.
I was living in Greece at the time of the fateful air-crash in 1972, working for BP, but returned to London for the funeral.
I was looking up someone else with a similar name just now and chanced upon your website. I am working in Abu Dhabi now for a year or two but come frequently to London. I had no idea there was a William Kadleigh Dept of Homeopathy at Bristol, altho’ I know that Leslie and Sergei moved to live in Bristol some time after Bill’s death.
Incidentally he was born in August 1945 (not 1942) !! I have a lovely oil painting of the Blue Mountains in Jamaica done by Bill’s mother when Sergei was on mission for the World Bank there – Bill used to go there during school holidays sometimes. I also have an excellent black and white photo of Bill – quite large (10″ x 6″) which could be digitally reproduced to hang in the Department at Bristol if this was of interest.
Best wishes
John Bridger
Hi John
Thank you so much for your comment – I am pleased to resolve the link between Sergei the homeopath and his father the architect. I emailed the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to try and find more information but only received an automated reply….
I will get back to you on the photograph – and I am grateful for the extra information you have provided on Bill Kadleigh and his family. It is important to gather this information together, as I was quite surprised that there was very little known about the homeopathic victims of the 1972 aircrash.
Your friend Bill was a very distinguished man who had the great fortune to have known Marjorie Blackie and some of the other great homeopaths at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital at that time.
What a loss!
Sue
Hi Sue, to let you know sergei senior’s birthday was 6th August 1916– died on 7th December 1998— you will hardly believe this . i went to work for Sergei and Leslie n 1995 and stayed with them looking after leslie until her death in March 1997. I stayed on as housekeeper for sergei and cared for him until he also died in1998. I was at Sergei and Leslie’s death and funeral as both of them were the last in their respective family lines.
here’s the strange bit– In 1972 i was on the perimeter road where the plane crashed,at Heathrow airport with my then partner and 3 children [ i had lived in Slough until 1966] and was visiting relatives for the weekend, we used to go to the airport to watch the planes take off. It was a horrifying scene and it was not until i met Sergei some 25 years later that i knew the names of any of the passengers and that “Bill” was one of them.. Strange you see because i did not know the family before 1995 and that i was at all 3 persons deaths . Call sign of the Trident by the way was Papa India . Rosa
Hi Rosa
I am so grateful you have taken the time to add this information to my blog site… and to add these incidental facts to our growing story of this terrible crash. Bringing this alive does honour to those who died by keeping their stories alive.
Truth is far stranger than fiction!
Regards.
Sue
I was at Miss Ironside’s Junior School in Elvaston Place, off Gloucester Road, London, from 1950-1953. I was friendly with Bill, and often used to go swimming with him at Kensington Close baths and then back to the family house at 63 Abingdon Villas W8.
I remember Leslie and Sergei as being lively and bohemian and can still see and even smell the house. I remember Bill’s nanny, Webbie, a cat called Puskin, and the paved back garden with its high white walls. Leslie taught me how to paint easter eggs.
Then we went to our separate schools and, sadly, lost contact. I never saw Bill again.
My father happened to scan the passenger list after the Papa India crash, and saw Bill’s name. I was going through a severe depressive episode at the time, and my parents did not tell me of Bill’s death till three years later.
I went to Sergei and Leslie’s flat in South Kensington for dinner. We drank and laughed a lot, but the tears were so close to the surface. I broke down as soon as I was safely out of the house.
My mother remembered Bill as a wild but irresistible boy, who used to call her ‘Little Whiskers’ because of her facial hair. She remembered his strong little neck, and his resemblance to the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens.
It’s unbearable to think of what might have been…
I came across this information when researching Leslie Kadleigh’s name. I recently purchased two acrylic on canvas paintings (one signed L. Kadleigh) but both paintings reflect a strong similarity in style. One is of a cityscape contrasting old/new buildings and the other is a scene which could easily represent a tropical undergrowth. Noting the reference to her artistic talents I wondered if anyone had any more information on these paintings which I was told were completed circa 1963 – 64.
I look forward to meeting some or all of you at 1.30 this coming Monday (18th June) at the 40th-anniversary memorial at the Church of St George the Martyr, 44 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AH.
I only knew Bill for a few years, but I remember him and his parents so vividly.
Vera
Hugh Elliot posted this comment under the bio of John Robertson Raeside 1926 – 1972 and I have taken the liberty of copying it through to Bill Kaldeigh’s bio… Sue 25.9.12
https://www.hahnemannhouse.org/john-robertson-raeside-1926-1972/comment-page-1/#comment-224440
Hugh Elliot
September 25, 2012 at 8:53 am | Permalink | Edit
Bill Kadleigh, one of the doctors who died on the flight to Brussels, was the son of my godfather, Sergei Kadleigh (anglicized from Kadlobovsky). Sergei senior was a White Russian who came to England, escaping the madness of the Russian Revolution. He settled in London with his mother. His son was the apple of his eye. I met Bill just before he died. I was 19. A month later I was being given some of Bill’s things, as his parents emptied out his flat. It was agonizing. Sergei and Leslie (Lesbia, in Russian) moved to Clifton, near Bristol. Sergei died in 1998. Bill’s parents never really recovered from their loss. They never finished grieving. For me, another huge irony about this tragedy was that my aunt, now deceased, Pat Stoll, was secretary to Dr. Blackie and Dr. Raeside (who died in the crash). It was her office that booked everyone on the fateful flight to Brussels. She, in turn, never really recovered, although I don’t think she blamed herself. She did sometimes wonder aloud why she hadn’t somehow booked the group onto separate flights, like on Sabena and BA, on the same day. She left the Homeopathic hospital and eventually turned to Buddhism, becoming a recluse at a place in Sussex. Later she went on a pilgrimage to Buddhist sites in India, but she was an inexperienced traveler and she became ill, refused medical care and died there, as a result. Her ashes were returned to England. I am her nephew, a friend of homeopathy. English, but living for the past 28 years in the USA. Thank you Sue for this memorial and website. I would have very much liked to have attended the 40th anniversary, in Queen’s Square. If I am spared, I shall attend the 50th. With very best wishes, Hugh Elliot.
I am delighted to say that, next Friday 22 November, the inaugural William Kadleigh Memorial Lecture will be given at the 100th Faculty of Homeopathy Congress in Edinburgh by Dr Lisa Amerine, President of the American Institute of Homeopathy. It is 50 years since Bill’s parents set up the William Kadleigh Memorial Fund to help doctors to study homeopathy. The fund has now been extended to create a lasting legacy for Bill by supporting leading homeopathic speakers to deliver a biennial lecture as well as a masterclass series. Roy Welford and Richard Annandale WKMF committee members.