A family doctor and founder of the Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS) has died aged 91.

The funeral of Graham Bracewell, a GP in Wrentham and Kessingland, will be held on Monday.

He launched SARS – one of the first of its type in the region – on May 1, 1972, after many meetings with fellow doctors, and representatives from the emergency services and the local health authorities. Within 20 years, it had a membership of more than 170 doctors.

As the National Health Service changed contracts and particularly with the diminished out-of-hours GP cover, its membership gradually declined. But it continues to provide a vital role, with its volunteers attending incidents throughout the county. Born in London, Dr Bracewell went to Taverham Hall School, near Norwich, and then to Rugby.

He studied medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, where he also met his wife, Pamela.

After national service, he returned to Suffolk in the early 1950s, where running a small GP practice was a 24/7 operation. For more than 30 years, he was in practice at Wrentham and later at the Kessingland Surgery in Field Lane.

He became senior partner in 1965, having followed his father into the practice in 1951, and was an active GP committee member of the district management team from 1974.

Dr Bracewell also served in the fracture clinics at Lowestoft and Gorleston hospitals and in the orthopaedic department at Ipswich Hospital, and he had a long-term association with Southwold District Hospital. He retired in 1983 and three years later moved to Wangford.

He passed away peacefully at his home on Christmas Eve. After his wife’s death 24 years ago, he married again and is survived by his wife Jenny. He leaves a son, Christopher, and daughter, Sally, four grandchildren and a great grandson.

A funeral service will be held at Wangford Parish Church on Monday at 11am.