Obituary: Kathleen Anne Burgess, physician.

Born: 25 October, 1914, in Broxburn, West Lothian. Died: 19 September, 2012, in Angus, aged 98.

Kathleen Anne Scott was born in Broxburn in 1914, the second child and eldest daughter of Alexander Scott MD and Janet Hogg Bryson. Her paternal grandfather, also Alexander Scott, was the dominie at Bargeddie, between Coatbridge and Airdrie, and later of the Victoria School in Airdrie; her maternal grandfather James Bryson was manager of the Pumpherston Oil Works and later designed and supervised the building of the original Grangemouth oil refinery.

She was educated at Craigmount School and the University of Edinburgh, where she graduated MB ChB in 1940, at the same ceremony as future husband, J Gordon Burgess MBE MB ChB, of Forfar. She took up a post as Resident Physician at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Mental Disorders.

Gordon and Kathleen were married in 1941, shortly before he was posted to India as a medical officer in the RAF. She went to Forfar to assist her father-in-law George Cruickshank Burgess MD with the family practice. Gordon returned in 1944 to take over from his father, who died that November.

The couple quickly gained a reputation for medical excellence and their bedside manners, and they continued in practice together, and later with other partners, until Kathleen retired in 1974.

They were involved with the ground-breaking Forfar Diabetic Survey in 1962, in which 83 per cent of the town co-operated. Thirty-four hitherto unknown diabetics were discovered to add to the 54 already known sufferers in the town.

After their retirement they travelled widely, and participated in local groups, in particular the Angus Members’ Centre of the National Trust for Scotland, an interest which Kathleen continued after being widowed in 1994.

Her interests were wide-ranging. She enjoyed golf, tennis and dancing in her youth, and walking and bridge in later years. She was keenly interested in the natural world, and a supporter of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the John Muir Trust. She loved Scotland, and the Highlands.

Kathleen was loved and valued by all who knew her. She had a positive attitude, facing everything including widowhood and failing eyesight with calm good humour, “a wonderful and impressive lady”, and “real character”. She died in her sleep in her 98th year, and is survived by a daughter and son, daughter-in-law, two grandsons and a granddaughter, a granddaughter-in-law and a great-granddaughter.