Robert Livingstone Orchardson

Robert Livingstone Orchardson

General practitioner Largs 1946-80 (b Paisley 1915; q Glasgow 1938; MBE, TD, MD Glasgow 1958, MRCGP 1958), died following a cerebrovascular accident on 31 May 2004.

After his house jobs in Glasgow and Greenock, Bobby Orchardson joined the RAMC in August 1939. His unit was sent to France in 1940 a week after the Dunkirk evacuations, but was quickly withdrawn without loss. He saw active service in north Africa and in Italy. He was awarded the MBE in 1942 and thrice mentioned in dispatches. He ended the war as deputy assistant director of medical services with 13th Corps, which he first joined in the Western Desert in 1941. He was demobilised in December 1945, and after a six-month attachment to Prof Sir John McNee’s unit in Glasgow Western Infirmary, he joined Dr Jack Cook’s practice in Largs in July 1946. He took over as principal in January 1947 and by the time he retired in September 1980, he was part of a group practice of five doctors.

He served the local medical community in many capacities. He was a member of the Ayrshire LMC (1956-74); a member of the Scottish GMS committee (1967-74); and a member of the Western Regional Committee for Postgraduate Medical Education (1970-4). He was chairman of the Ayrshire division of the BMA. In addition, he acted as surgeon to the Strathclyde police and the Admiralty.

In the 1950s he carried out basic biomedical investigations on samples of his patients’ blood and urine and gained his MD for a thesis on "Renal function in an ageing community." A patient and meticulous man, he recorded all his observations in meticulous detail and in numerous colours. His diary entries included daily biometric data and weather reports. These continued until his peripheral sensory and motor impairments made it difficult to hold a pen. His latter years were marred by increasing physical frailty, but he bore these afflictions bravely and patiently.

He was very much involved in the local community. He was a founder member of the Largs Rotary Club, and president in 1960. He was an accomplished water-colourist, and his hand-painted Christmas cards will be missed by many. He was an elder in the Church of Scotland. He tape-recorded church services and duplicated tapes, which were distributed to house-bound members of the congregation.

His wife, Nanna, died in 2001, and he is survived by a son and two grandchildren. [Robin Orchardson]