Jack Preger

Jack Preger was born on 25 July 1930. He took a postgraduate degree in economics and political science at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, then farmed in Wales before selling up to study medicine. In 1965, at the age of 35, he was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. He had planned to work among the poor in South or Central America and learned Spanish, but a radio appeal after Bangladesh's independence redirected him to South Asia.

In 1972 Preger went to Dhaka, worked in refugee camps, learned Urdu and later Bengali, and by 1975 ran a 90 bed clinic and two farms. After exposing child smuggling linked to Terre des Hommes he was deported in 1979. He then spent six months with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata before opening his own pavement clinic, first under the Howrah Bridge approach and then on Middleton Row off Park Street.

From 1979 to 1993 the clinic went up at dawn and came down at dusk, treating ulcers, burns, infections and referring cancer and heart cases to hospitals, all free. Once Calcutta Rescue was registered he opened permanent clinics, schools and vocational centres and won court fights over visas and foreign donations. His example inspired Jim Withers's Street Medicine Institute. He received an MBE in 1993 and an Asian Awards philanthropy honour in 2017, retiring to Britain in 2019.

Preger lived for decades among the communities he served in Dhaka and Kolkata, learning local languages and relying on volunteers, including travelling nurses who postponed journeys to help. Public obituaries after his death focused on his medical work rather than family details. He spent his final years in Norfolk after leaving India in 2019.

Preger died on 31 October 2026 in Diss, Norfolk, aged 96. The Times of India and The Telegraph of Kolkata reported the death of the doctor long known as a healer of the city's poor. Calcutta Rescue said his work in the city continues through its clinics, schools and vocational centres.

Preger is remembered as a founder of street medicine and as the Pavement Doctor of Calcutta. Calcutta Rescue still runs clinics, schools and training centres with international support groups. The Street Medicine Institute and related programmes in more than 85 cities trace part of their inspiration to his Kolkata pavement clinic.