Gordon H D McNaught, who died at the age of 90, was a general surgeon of the old school, who gave devoted service to the town of Hartlepool from 1963 until his retirement in 1984; he was highly respected by his patients and his general practitioner colleagues.

He was born and brought up in Preston, later lived in Windermere; here he had his first introduction to boats and sailing. He went to school at Hutton Grammar School in Preston and Fettes College in Edinburgh, where he won the school prize for mathematics and the AJ Begg memorial exhibition, a competitive scholarship to study medicine, which he …