The Rotary Club of Dartmouth has welcomed a new president.

At the Stoke Lodge Hotel, the presidential handover saw incoming president Peter Goldstraw welcomed into the position.

Outgoing president, Michael Freeman in his retiring address expressed his gratitude to the officers and members for their support over the past year.

The incoming president was born in Leek in Staffordshire on February 9, 1945. He married Denise shortly after graduating from the University of Birmingham in June 1968.

They have two children-Miles who is now a consultant Urologist in Exeter and Emma who is a consultant radiologist in London and they have two grandchildren.

After training in Cardiothoracic surgery in Edinburgh, Glasgow and South Africa, Peter was appointed Consultant Thoracic surgeon at the Royal Brompton Hospital in 1979.

Since that time he also held additional consultancy positions at the Whittington Hospital, University College Hospital, the Middlesex Hospital, Benenden Hospital and with the Royal Navy and Royal Airforce.

He is now an Honorary Consultant in Thoracic Surgery to the Royal Brompton Hospital and Emeritus Professor of Thoracic Surgery at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, UK.

In addition, he has given over 400 lectures at International and National conferences and has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and 58 chapters in specialist textbooks. He received the Price Thomas Gold Medal from the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2004, awarded triennially to the surgeon considered by the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England to have made meritorious contributions in any branch of surgery.

Peter has also been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the British Thoracic Oncology Group in 2006 and the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland in 2010. He was the President of the Cardiothoracic Section of the Royal Society of Medicine from 1994- 1996 and President of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons 1995-1996. He has been a board member of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer from 2009 – 2015 and its President from 2011-2013.

Peter and Denise have had a home in Dartmouth since 2001 and have lived there full time since 2010.

He joined the Rotary club in June, 2013 and since then has been involved in the Know your Blood Pressure Day, the young chef and youth speaks events and worked with the rotary public relations officer.