A STREET could be named after a popular family doctor when a memorial building is demolished.

The Walter Muir Memorial Hall in Coggeshall Road, Braintree, had been home to the St John Ambulance Braintree and Bocking Division since 1994, until it closed in March 2013.

The building was named after Dr Walter Muir,a partner at the Mount Chambers Practice and a senior figure in the St John Ambulance.

Planning permission was granted earlier this year for a new three-storey building on the site containing four flats.

Former patient Mike Bardell said: “He was a very gracious man. He was short and quietly spoken.

"He was undemonstrative.  He had a lovely wife as well.”

Mr Bardell said he remembered Dr Muir for rushing to his wife’s aid in 1977 after she complained about pain following the birth of a child.

He said: “I was explaining it to the receptionist and he must have been around the corner and heard the conversation.

"When I got home, he was already there.

“He didn’t shout over his shoulder or anything, he just left and went and did it. That was the kind of man he was.”

Braintree and Witham Times:

                                                                           Dr Walter Muir

Mr Muir, who lived in Grove Field, Braintree, died in the early 1990s and his wife Joyce died in 2001.

The building was constructed in 1950 for the Air Training Corp, but when the St John Ambulance moved in it was re-named after Mr Muir, at that time the divisional surgeon for the charity.

In February 1973, the Scotsman received a medal of the Order of St John for 15 years’ service and retired in 1987.

Braintree and Witham Times:

                                                      Joyce Muir outside the hall in 1984

Mr Bardell said he had been asked by the council to name 75 streets in Braintree after publishing a book on the subject in 1996.

He said: “When developers are asked to give names, it’s got to have some local connection – they can’t just call it Nelson Mandela Close or something like that. They go back to the council, who then come to me.

“Across the road, there is a little site where the surgery used to be and I was wondering if that could be called Walter Muir Close or something like that. I would support that.”

A St John Ambulance spokesman said the charity was also looking for a way to memorialise Mr Muir in Braintree.