John was born on 16 August 1920 and brought up in Gairloch, Western Ross. Starting medical studies at Glasgow in 1942, he left after the first year and volunteered for the RAF, which sent him for flight training in East Africa, after which he served as a spitfire pilot. On demob in 1946 he returned to finish his studies. After some time in general practice in Wales, he undertook training in child psychiatry at Glasgow before moving to London for psychoanalytic training, working meanwhile at Shenley Hospital. His first consultant post was in child psychiatry, based in Inverness and covering the north of Scotland, which made him the most northerly psychoanalyst in Britain. Extensive travel was involved.

In 1966, now with a family of six children, he moved to Canada as staff psychiatrist in the newly developed University Health Service in Toronto, which also permitted private practice in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.

In 1976 he returned to the UK firstly as a consultant psychiatrist at Hereford for a year, but thereafter returned to his roots as consultant at Craig Dunain Hospital, Inverness, now in adult psychiatry.

He retired in 1988, but continued to do locum work for 6 years: much of this was in the Outer Hebrides. He also worked in North Bay, Ontario and Kenora, Ontario, where many of his patients were native Canadians.

He had a life-long passion for books and an impressive collection. In earlier years he was a keen climber and did some classic routes in Scotland and the Alps. He was interested in photography and developed, with his wife, a special interest in botanical subjects.

He had a great interest in gardens and cultivated a fine shrub, fruit and flower garden in Inverness. With his wife, he became an enthusiastic traveller to gardens in the UK and Western Europe.

His family was a source of joy and the loss of his son Hector, in 1981, and his daughter Alison just last year, were great blows.

John died at home on 16 February 2002. He faced his terminal illness with characteristic courage and stoicism.