Geoffrey Harding, B.C. doctor slain in Bahamas, remembered for 'roaring laugh'

Detectives in the Bahamas have arrested a 43-year-old suspect in the stabbing death of retired B.C. doctor Geoffrey Harding, 88, while friends and colleagues around the province are in disbelief about his violent death.

• B.C. doctor Geoffrey Harding slain on vacation in Bahamas, family says

Harding, a British citizen with a long and distinguished medical career in B.C., was discovered at his winter home in Clarence Town, Long Island, on Thursday, according to police. He had multiple stab wounds.

Stephen Dean, Bahamas assistant police commissioner, said a murder charge is expected to be laid later this week.

Harding's youngest daughter, Becky Craigie, is now in the Bahamas, where she says local police told her the suspect arrested has admitted guilt. She said the support from back home in B.C. has been uplifting to her family. 

"I think we are just putting one foot in front of the other, taking it one tough step at a time," she said.

"When one falls down the other picks them up, we are trying to keep each other going."

Harding had worked as a family doctor and obstetrician-gynecologist in Chetwynd, New Westminster and Gabriola Island, B.C.

"I was horrified," said Dr. Jim Mackenzie, a friend who also shared a practice with Harding on Gabriola until Harding retired in 2008. "It really rocked me back in my chair to hear how this had happened — just, obviously, totally out of the blue."

Mackenzie said he will remember Harding for his enjoyment of life and sense of humour.

"Great vitality, never averse to trying something totally new, even into his 80s … and that absolutely roaring laugh."

Patients took ferry to visit him

Harding worked around the world before moving to B.C., including in Iraq, said son-in-law Gregor Craigie, who is a CBC Radio host in Victoria.

"He told me … he would walk through the desert in the hot midday sun as a precaution for when the British were kicked out, fearing he might have to leave the country on foot, across the desert."

Craigie said his father-in-law found his calling in a family practice.

Harding was so popular with patients, some kept seeing him when he moved his practice from the Vancouver area to Gabriola Island.

"When we held his retirement party on Gabriola, many patients told me they had been taking two ferries just for appointments with him," said Craigie.

Harding also helped build the first medical clinic in Chetwynd, and delivered many babies there over the years, according to Chetwynd Mayor Merlin Nichols.

He had five daughters, four of whom survive.