David Charlaff obituary

My father, David Charlaff, who has died aged 71, was an osteopath committed to a pay-what-you-can business model – accepting rewards in any form, from a token fee to works of art , theater tickets or just a thank you -You. As a result, his north London practice was a cross between a contemporary art gallery and an anatomy museum, complete with flamingo skeletons and bottle sharks.

David was born to a Jewish family in Cape Town, South Africa, where his father, Solly, was the owner of a printing company and his mother, Sybil (née Slome), was a housewife. Despite the anti-Semitism of the apartheid era, David’s sporting prowess gave him access to national institutions such as the junior Springboks rugby team.

After attending the South African College school in Cape Town, he ran a mobile disco with a black friend as a young adult and founded an activist theater company, Chicken Theatre. He began his military service in the South African Navy but avoided completing it by dressing up as ‘Captain South Africa’ and feigning insanity, thus irritating the authorities.

Amid rising political tensions in the 1970s, David and his then partner, Marsha Sanders, decided to emigrate to France. They settled there with their two children, Jess and Leyla, in a small mountain village in the Ardèche, where David worked as a goat farmer.

After he and Marsha split in 1976, David moved to Britain in 1977 and began training at the European School of Osteopathy in Kent. During this time he lived in a caravan and also worked as a builder.

After qualifying as an osteopath in 1981, he founded and ran the North End practice in Kentish Town, North London, later working alone in his own Northwood Road practice just off Archway Road.

A talented painter and sculptor, he was able to focus more on his art after retiring in 2017 due to ill health. During his last years, he made several drawings a day and enjoyed playing his harmonica for his youngest grandson. He also loved film, music and literature.

In 1984 he married Lizza Aiken, an actor, with whom he had two children, Emil and me. The marriage ended in divorce in 2011.

He is survived by four children, five grandchildren and a sister, Suzanne.