Hugh Dinwoodie, GP who cared for generations of Edinburgh patients

Hugh Dinwoodie was always looking for ways to improve patients’ lives

Hugh Parker Dinwoodie was a general practitioner, an enthusiastic piper, a lifelong climber and a keen archaeologist.

Born in Derbyshire in 1930, he was the son of a doctor practising in England. The eldest of three siblings, Hugh was brother to Alison and Andrew.

When he reached school age Hugh was sent back to Scotland to be educated at Merchiston Castle School, where he was introduced to piping. He later became Pipe Major and a stalwart of the First XV. The pipes remained a passion all his life.

It was no surprise that after Merchiston he should progress to Glasgow University to study medicine. Here he was to discover two new loves – climbing through the GUM club and that of another trainee doctor and climber, Doreen Ireland.

Hugh graduated from Glasgow University, and as soon as he had completed his hospital training he married Doreen and set about finding a practice to begin his career. The couple’s son, Colin, was born in 1957.

After a brief time in Perth, he accepted an offer to go into partnership with Jacko Simpson in Trinity, Edinburgh, where he would practise and live for the next 66 years, with Doreen by his side.

She was an integral part of the care that he was able to offer. After acting as his partnership secretary for several years, she went back to work as a family planning counsellor when childcare allowed, moving to the thyroid review clinic at the Western General, before becoming a genetic counsellor and working well past her retirement years. Doreen died in 2022.

During his long career Hugh was known for seeking out innovations and ways to improve patients’ lives, and he was one of the first to embrace computerisation, well ahead of the times.

Unlike the typical stereotypes of doctors handwriting, his was both cursive but, more importantly, legible, yet despite this he recognised the benefit of digitising patient files, offering quick access to patient data, even though it took him many, many hours of painstaking work to create the early records.

There was something timeless, almost old fashioned, about Hugh’s ability to tune into patients, when they would say “it is probably nothing, doctor, but...” No advances in technology can replace that ability to home in on the most important revelations.

He would spend hours researching topics close to his heart, particularly on behalf of the Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society. He was especially pleased to “rediscover” the Corrour Old Lodge south of Loch Ossian.

Despite his advancing years, his enthusiasm and lively curiosity never waned. Although no longer practising, during his eighties and nineties he was still living a very full life, including climbing Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh (with much indignation for the congratulations offered from a much younger climber).

At the same time, Hugh offered recognition to those still in service during lockdown, when the country came out to applaud the NHS. Hugh, aged 90, dressed in his full kilt, stood proudly on his balcony and played the bagpipes for 30 minutes each evening. That is a measure of the proud and inimitable spirit he exhibited, he was a true gentleman with a lively spark in his eye and a story to be retold.

Hugh died in Newcastle upon Tyne. Had he any say in the matter he would have been in his beloved Wester Ross, high on the mountain side of An Teallach.

He is survived by his son, Colin.

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