Veteran doctor’s name lives on after widow leaves £2.6m for RNLI boat

A LIFEBOAT named in honour of a veteran doctor at the behest of his widow was unveiled for the first time yesterday.

Catherine Barr, who died in 2008 aged 98, left £2.6 million to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution on condition a vessel be named after her late husband, Dr John Buchanan Barr MBE.

She also stipulated that an inscription on the boat should read: “He saved so many lives during the war.”

The new boat had been undergoing sea trials and yesterday arrived in Portpatrick, Wigtownshire, where it will be based.

The John Buchanan Barr arrived in Portpatrick after a 500-mile trip from the RNLI headquarters in Poole, Dorset, and was escorted by the Mary Irene Millar.

Mrs Barr passed away in January 2008 almost five years after her husband died in 2003 when he was 93. She left the bulk of her £3.5m fortune to the RNLI.

Dr Barr had been educated at Dumbarton Academy and the University of Glasgow.

Before the Second World War, he was a general practitioner in Glasgow. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps on the outbreak of war in 1939 and rose to the rank of major.

He went on to serve in North Africa, Sicily and mainland Italy.

The couple, who had no children, lived in Bearsden, near Glasgow. The couple often spent their holidays in Portpatrick, and the lifeboat bequest reflected their fondess for the village.

The Portpatrick station’s Tamar class vessel is the most technologically-advanced type in the RNLI fleet.

It replaces the Tyne class all-weather lifeboat, Mary Irene Millar, which has been stationed at Portpatrick since 1989.