Obituary: Dr Bill Harding, lecturer, schools inspector, writer and historian

• Dr Bill Harding, lecturer, schools inspector, writer and historian. Born: 25 August, 1929, in Panbride, Angus. Died: 24 March, 2011, in Perth, aged 81.

the teenage trauma of contracting polio may not have seemed so at the time, but was undoubtedly a blessing in disguise for Bill Harding.

While it confined the 17-year-old to hospital for a year, it also sparked an insatiable thirst for reading and knowledge which grew to define his life as an academic, writer and critic, historian and teacher.

In all, he held degrees from five universities, reviewed more than 500 plays and wrote more than 1,000 book reviews. Having written one thesis in Gaelic, he was also fluent in French and German and, in retirement, took up Japanese and Russian.

Undaunted by a stroke which ended his lecturing career, he recovered fully and went on to write two books chartering aspects of work and war on the people of Perth.

He was a man who simply never stopped learning or educating.

Born in Panbride, Angus, he was the son of Albert Harding and Isabella Keiller and a descendent of the Dundee marmalade inventor, Janet Keiller.

Growing up during the Second World War on the beaches of West Haven - once dodging the bullets of a Luftwaffe fighter strafing Carnoustie - he was fascinated by the progress of war and already conscious of history unfolding.

Moving to Perth as a youngster, he was educated at the Caledonian Road School and Perth Academy, becoming a member of the Boys' Brigade and the Territorial Army, emulating a long family history in the Black Watch.

After being struck by polio he recovered, with his lust for reading ignited, to go to Aberdeen University in 1948 to study history. Four years later he began a postgraduate degree at St Andrews University, often working on archaeological digs throughout central Scotland.

His teaching career began in 1952 at Stobswell Boys' School in Dundee, followed by a spell at Kinross High School. He also began working as a radio and theatre critic for The Scotsman and Glasgow Herald and, with his interest in military history, became a literary reviewer for Soldier magazine, an association lasting almost 30 years.

He met Anne McLaren in 1952, and they married in Kinnoull Parish Church in April 1954, around the same time that Harding became a permanent fixture in Perth's Sandeman Library, where he would research and write.

Still studying, the following year he graduated with a BA from London University, continuing his academic career with a B Ed from St Andrew's in 1962. Throughout the 1960s he returned to study at St Andrews, gaining an M Ed in history in 1968.

During the same period he also worked as a history teacher at Perth Academy and, in 1965, took up a six-month posting in Kenya and Zambia as a schools inspector, travelling extensively in the bush to visit local schools and returning with armfuls of African tribal art which still adorn his home.

By this time he was also a father of three, working from the mid-1960s until the 1980s at Dundee University as principal history lecturer. Summers were spent teaching American and other foreign students at summer schools as part of the American Institute for Foreign Study. These included many courses at Bonskeid Hostel at Loch Tummel, where he took classes in mountaineering, skiing and rock climbing before spending the evening singing traditional folk and traveller songs, accompanied by musicians and whisky.

He was also an ardent supporter of traditional Scottish arts and crafts, industrial history and conservation, galvanising local people and academics into preserving Scotland's rich heritage.

In 1964, along with local teacher Bert Hopkins, he formed the Pitheavlis Castle Club to renovate and restore the 16th-century Perth castle. For him, understanding this heritage meant learning Gaelic, which was to become his other great passion.

More academic study followed, with an MSc from Glasgow University and then a PhD from Dundee University which covered an exhaustive, 13-year study of education in Perthshire prior to the 1872 Scottish Education Act. It resulted in him becoming a local expert in Scotland's parish system of schools.

In 1979 he returned to Glasgow, graduating MLit from the department of Celtic studies - his thesis on the Edinburgh Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools written in Gaelic.

He also wrote numerous papers for the Open University, became a Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland, winning a Page scholarship to the US, and often lectured on local history, from Scottish witchcraft to the Romans in Britain.

When Dundee's history department was facing cuts in 1980 he opted to secure a future by embracing new technology, studying computer design and systems analysis at Dundee College of Commerce.

Retiring from lecturing in 1982 after a stroke, he recovered to research and write the story of Pullars of Perth, the dyeing and dry-cleaning business, and On Flows The Tay, which illustrated the impact on Perth residents of the Great War.

The epitome of his belief in lifelong learning and personal advancement, he was an advocate of the universality of education for all and supported adult education, extra mural studies, Gaelic speaking, Historic Scotland and the preservation of the country's industrial heritage.

A great hillwalker, chess player and family man, he was constantly busy, always reading, and leaves a house packed with books and archives.

He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Anne, their children Susan, Simon and Jane, and six grandchildren.

ALISON SHAW