Former consultant neurologist Dr Milne Anderson, who spent his formative years in Forfar, has died suddenly. He was 70.
Dr Anderson was born in Elgin and lived in the Glasgow area before moving to Forfar as a young child.
He attended Forfar Academy and went on to graduate MB ChB from St Andrews University in 1965.
His first years as a junior doctor were in hospitals in Dundee and Arbroath.
He then moved with his family to England to become registrar in neurology at the Midland Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Smethwick.
He remained in the Midlands for the remainder of his medical career, becoming a consultant in neurology in 1977, specialising in neurological infections and serving a number of hospitals in the Birmingham area.
He was seconded to Saudi Arabia for a year in 1984 as a clinician, lecturer and teacher and in subsequent years travelled to Jordan, Kuwait and Turkey.
Dr Anderson retired from the Queen Elizabeth Neurosciences Centre, Birmingham, in 2003, and moved to Kinlochleven, to live surrounded by his favourite mountains.
Dr Anderson’s marriage to Pat lasted for more than 50 years. They had three sons and a daughter. His 12 grandchildren who all knew him as Grumpa Beard adored him, realising that under the stern exterior lay an inner softness.
Dr Anderson was a keen hill walker, skier and camper who thought nothing in earlier years of driving his family across Europe when there were few motorways for a camping holiday in Greece, one of his favourite places.
He was an avid reader of political biographies, world history and religion, and the novels of Sir Walter Scott.
Latterly he enjoyed sailing his boat around the sea lochs of west Scotland.
Dr Anderson is survived by Pat, children Peter and Rory, who both live and work in Angus, Fiona (USA) and Boff (Dubai), and by his grandchildren.