Dolf Polak obituary

My father, Dolf Polak, who has died aged 98, was a professor of renal medicine who maintained a strong interest in music throughout his life.

He was born in The Hague in the Netherlands, but moved to London with his family when he was five years old. His parents, Jacques Polak, a lawyer who became a director of Unilever, and Connie van den Bergh, a housewife, both had a love of art and music, and Dolf learned the violin from an early age. Throughout the 1930s, the family home was a haven for Jewish refugees, many of whom were musicians.

Connie chose progressive schools for her children; Dolf went to King Alfred’s School in north London and then to Bedales in Hampshire during the second world war to avoid the blitz – although he returned to London regularly for violin lessons. He might have opted to become a professional musician, but with the war raging and many Dutch Jewish friends and family members dead or missing, he chose medicine instead.

As a medical student at Cambridge University and later at the University College hospital in London, Dolf still found time for music, playing with many people who later became celebrated performers as well as lifelong friends. But studying and playing were interrupted when the Dutch army sent him to Europe as a dispatch rider, so it was 1948 before he began his 40-year career in the NHS.

In 1954 Dolf married Thalia Salaman, a sculptor, and they had four children: Ben, Kate, Louisa and me. In 1964 he started a regional renal unit in Portsmouth, and when a new medical school opened in Southampton in 1971 he became a professor there. He and Thalia renovated an old rectory nearby, creating a large music room: they lived there for 40 years.

Despite being a full-time doctor and academic, Dolf was always a sought-after musician, playing in local orchestras and many chamber ensembles. The informal concerts he and Thalia organised at home became more regular after Dolf retired in 1988, and he began teaching violin to private pupils.

In 2006 Dolf and Thalia moved to Cambridgeshire, where they were warmly welcomed by local chamber music players. Dolf played with these new friends until he was 96, when arthritis forced him to stop.

In his spare time before that he had begun writing string arrangements for some of the music he loved, creating many short “encores” as well as a full-scale quintet. His formidable knowledge of the chamber music repertoire made him a daunting audience, but after he stopped playing he loved having people to come and play to him, remaining a courteous host to the end of his life.

He is survived by Thalia, their four children, nine grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.