Obituary: Andrew Hastings

Born: 29 March, 1920, in Falkirk.

Died: 1 February, 2010, in Edinburgh, aged 89.

ANDREW Hastings was born in 1920 in Falkirk, where his father was a director of the iron works. His mother was a professional photographer. Andy was the youngest of five: he had one sister and three brothers.

Their father had a disability as a result of an accident in his youth. Physically, he had to struggle in the fulfilment of his duties, and died while still in harness.

The family moved to a flat in Edinburgh and Andy was able to go to George Watson's College. Very sadly, he was soon to lose his mother. With two of his elder brothers, he stayed on in their flat, and in due course became joint captain of the school, and joint dux.

One of the masters at Watson's, who was sensitive to what Andy was going through, especially because of the recent loss of his mother, told him about the Oxford Group, a dynamic spiritual group that was active in Scotland at the time. This led to Andy finding faith, which would be the guiding light in his life for his remaining 70-plus years.

On leaving school Andy went to Edinburgh University, where he read history, and developed a passionate, lifelong interest in the subject.

In 1941 he volunteered for the Royal Navy and joined as an Ordinary Seaman. His ship took part in the evacuation of Crete and was damaged. He spent his 21st birthday in the Bitter Lakes of the Suez Canal. He was selected for officer training and, on successful completion of this, joined the destroyer Wishart, which operated off Gibraltar protecting Atlantic convoys. His ship assisted in the battles to reach Malta with provisions.

Later, when the Wishart was sent to the scrapyard, he was assigned to a new destroyer, the Zealous, which took part in the Arctic convoys taking supplies to Murmansk.

On one of those convoys his ship, along with three other destroyers, was detailed to make a dramatic rescue of more than 500 women and children, and some old men, hiding in caves on the island of Srya, off the Norweigian coast.

Andy's original aim after the war ended was to join the Colonial Service, but his experiences during the war made him aware that the world was changing and that many colonies would be seeking independence.

A fellow officer, Dick Channer, takes up the story: "I met Andy and was working with him in the winter of 1946. We were working with the MRA (Moral Rearmament Action) in London with The Forgotten Factor play running nightly at the Westminster Theatre. We were with a number of Second World War veterans.

"Andy had been in the Royal Navy and in Burma. As well as his campaign medals, Andy would have had the Defence Medal. It was the humblest of war medals, yet perhaps it was the most meaningful. It was given for having taken part in the defence of the homeland, either in Britain itself or on seas and in lands afar.

"Andy, with others, switched over to fight with MRA in the war of ideas on the global front, and to serve God in the eternal struggle between good and evil.

"Andy was in our special fellowship of those who had taken part in the great endeavour of saving Britain and then going on immediately to give our lives that God's will be done on earth."

A few years ago, Andy received another medal, the Arctic Star, belatedly awarded to those who had taken part in the Arctic convoys to Murmansk, and this meant a great deal to him.

His work with Moral Rearmanent took him to many parts of the world, especially Africa. This included South Africa, what was then Rhodesia, Kenya and Nigeria. In Nigeria he took part in the creation of the film Freedom, based on a play written by Africans and with an overwhelmingly African cast. This was widely used in the changing world which Andy had seen coming at the end of the war.

It was in the United States, in Kentucky, in 1957, that Andy proposed marriage to Hazel Squares from England. Like him, she was giving her life to remake the world. A year later they were married at Caux in Switzerland, the world centre of the work which had brought them together.

After the birth of their two sons, named Alexander and Robert after Scottish kings, the family settled in Scotland, first in East Lothian, then in Murrayfield in Edinburgh and then in West Linton.

They continued to meet and welcome to their home African post-graduate students, among many others. Andy was pleased to pick up his links with George Watson's, as a parent, but also more broadly.

He was ordained as an elder of the kirk, serving at Murrayfield and then on the kirk session of the congregation at St Andrew's Church, West Linton.

He enjoyed being chair of the Historical Society in the village, and attending the annual general meetings – and subsequent lunches – of the Edinburgh University Court.

Continuing the broad expression of his faith and commitment, he took part in the production of a slide presentation, written by two friends, of the life and teaching of Henry Drummond, the 19th-century scientist and evangelist, and also travelled with a musical play on the life of Saint Columba, also written by two friends.

Andy's family life was a great joy to him. Hazel and he were particularly pleased when Alexander and Robert, though both past the first flush of youth, got married within months of each other in 2007, bringing Lorna and Claire into the family.

And before ill-health seriously clouded the final months of Andy's long life (he would have been 90 this month) he had been delighted to make the acquaintance of little Alice.

Many will remember Andy particularly as a loyal and steadfast friend. His friendship was distinctive, realistic and deep.