Dr Hugh Murray Strathern

Dr Hugh Murray Strathern

Hugh Murray Strathern was born in Port Glasgow on 25 July 1928. His father was a senior draftsman and his mother was a primary school teacher. Murray had a supportive and happy background and he was clearly a studious and hardworking young man from an early age. He attended Greenock Academy and went on to study Medicine at Glasgow University.

On graduating MB ChB, national service beckoned, and Murray spent two years as a medical officer in Malaya during the Communist uprising, the Emergency. Based in Penang, he would occasionally have to fly up country to remote villages. The plane would follow the railway line and on occasion, Murray would be allowed to take the controls and fly the small craft over the jungles and kampongs. Thus began an interest in flying and aircraft that was to last all his adult life. On his return to Scotland, young ‘Captain Hugh Strathern’ had to decide which specialism to follow. He has been interested in gynaecology, but as a keen photographer, he was attracted to the emergent discipline of radiology, one of the great advances in medical science in the last century. Murray secured a position as registrar at the Western Infirmary before becoming a consultant radiologist at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride. 

_______________________________

25th July 1928 to 20th July 2016

A scholarly man, Murray worked hard and put in long hours to gain additional qualifications, Fellowship of the Royal College of Radiology, Fellow of Faculty of Radiologists(FFR) and Diploma in Medical Radiodiagnosis(DMRD). In time he moved back to his home area, based in Greenock Royal, but also serving Victoria Hospital, Rothesay, Dunoon General and Bridge of Weir Hospital and Port Glasgow Health Centre. In 1967, Murray married Maureen McFarlane, soon moving to Kilmacolm, first in Knockbuckle Road and then, for many happy years at Alnabreac in Gryffe Road.

Deeply involved in both the detail and the wider aspects of his profession, and “continuing professional development”, Murray was a member of the Scottish Council of the British Medical Association, being Treasurer and Joint Secretary of the Renfrewshire branch of BMA. He also served on the Committee for post graduate medical education. He was also, incidentally, involved in helping to develop the use of photoluminescent strips that form the emergency lighting that cabin crew point out to us each time we board an aircraft.

Ultimately he was senior consultant radiologist in charge at Inverclyde Royal, keeping an active interest in all the huge strides made in diagnostic imaging and oncology for all of his life, even into retirement.
Much as he loved travel, he enjoyed life in Inverclyde. Active in the Greenock Club and the Greenock Faculty of Medicine, he was also a member of Kilmacolm Golf Club, although he would be the last person to describe himself as sporty. Not a showy person, Murray Strathern was kind and thoughtful, certainly not one to rush to judgement, but, as befits his profession, measured and careful in what he said. And we know he was a loving and diligent husband to Maureen and they had a happy life together for so many years.

Memoir author: Jim McDougall