Born in Coventry

Jack Reginald Worsley, known to everyone as J.R., was born in Coventry on 14 September 1923. He grew up in a small terraced house in the city. He won a scholarship to King Henry VIII School, but his family couldn't afford the books, so he was unable to take it up.

During the Second World War he served as an army education officer and studied physiotherapy. Afterwards he practised as a physiotherapist and went on to study osteopathy, naturopathy and Chinese acupuncture, travelling to the Far East to learn from teachers there.

What he brought back became known as Classical Five-Element Acupuncture: a way of diagnosing and treating the one element that lies at the root of a person's imbalance, working with body, mind and spirit together. He taught it to students across Britain, America and beyond, and wrote books including Is Acupuncture for You? and Everyone's Guide to Acupuncture, the second with a foreword by the Bishop of Coventry.

J.R. Worsley died on 2 June 2003. He was still seeing patients from his hospital bed days before. Nearly 300 people gathered at All Saints' Church in Burton Dassett, south Warwickshire, to say goodbye to one of Coventry's most remarkable sons.

Why it matters to me

At White Willow, I practise the Five Element tradition that J.R. Worsley taught, a few miles from where he grew up. I think that's worth celebrating.

Sources: Coventry Telegraph, "Farewell to healer JR" · Acupuncture Today, obituary · Everyone's Guide to Acupuncture, 1974 (library record)