Ian James Burns

Ian James Burns was born in Glasgow to parents James Aloysius Burns and Mabel Thomson Dick of Rutherglen. He attended Burnside Primary School and St Aloysius College, Glasgow, before gaining entry to Glasgow School of Medicine in 1949, aged only 17. He qualified in 1955, and spent his preregistration year as house officer at Stonehouse Hospital, Lanarkshire, and Glasgow Western Infirmary A&O, before gaining full medical registration in August 1956.

Ian selected anaesthetics as his specialty and quickly progressed from junior house officer anaesthesia at Glasgow Royal Infirmary to senior house officer at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in 1957. After three years as registrar anaesthetist at Edinburgh, he moved to Inverness in 1961 as senior registrar anaesthetist at the Royal Northern Infirmary and Raigmore Hospital.

In those early days in Inverness, Ian met Katie McEwan, a young orthopaedic nurse from Perth. They were married in October 1964 and soon moved to Wick, their home to this day. Ian’s primary role for the following 32 years was as specialist anaesthetist to the Caithness hospitals, although in 1970 he started to broaden his expertise; as clinical …