'An unbelievable human being' – tributes paid to retired Wick surgeon Pradip Datta
Tributes have been paid to Pradip Datta MBE MS FRCS, the retired Caithness consultant surgeon, following his death at the weekend at the age of 81.
He was described as an outstanding professional, a man of integrity and "just a great person".
Mr Datta spent 25 years working in Wick, first at the Bignold Hospital and then at Caithness General. Young surgeons would come from around the world to be trained by him in his adopted county.
He was also a renowned sportsman, winning multiple squash championships locally.
Mr Datta suffered a life-changing stroke in 2017 at his home in Newton Avenue, Wick, and was supported afterwards by his friend Loretta Reynolds along with carers. He spent his last few months at Pentland View care home in Thurso and passed away there on Saturday.
In 2020 he published his memoirs, entitled The Naked Mountain Lands, a detailed and often humorous account of his life in the 50-plus years after he left his native India. Sales of the book have raised thousands of pounds for his three chosen charities.
Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Mr Datta was keen from an early age to enter the medical profession. His mother told him that his first words were "I want to be a doctor".
He arrived in the UK in 1967 with £1 and 10 shillings in his pocket and had spells in various parts of the country before taking a job at the Bignold – despite having no idea where it was when he applied in 1980.
He and his late wife Swati settled happily in Wick and his mother lived with them in the town for a number of years.
Mr Datta was also a keen angler, taking his son Sandip all over Scotland and further afield in pursuit of fish.
Sandip (42), a child psychiatrist living in Perthshire, said: "My father was an unbelievable human being that touched the hearts and lives of many people in Caithness and beyond. He will be greatly missed but never forgotten."
Sandip's wife Samantha, who runs a fishing holiday business, became an important part of Mr Datta’s life and they were very close.
Mr Datta was Wick Squash Club's only lifetime member. In the summer of 2021, court one at the club was named in his honour.
Speaking at the time, he said: "I have played squash at the most southerly, easterly, westerly and northerly courts in Great Britain, but nothing compares to Caithness."
His great squash rival and close friend Roy Mackenzie this week recalled Mr Datta's competitive nature as a sportsman.
Top stories
"He was obviously focused and driven, but he was absolutely fair," Mr Mackenzie said. "He'd give you a steely look to say 'I'm going to really try hard now', but he would never try any gamesmanship.
"Integrity was just effervescing out of him, and that's what I loved him for. He was such a great guy.
"He knew what he wanted to do. He didn't want to be just an FRCS [Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons] in London – he wanted to be an FRCS in Dublin, he wanted to be an FRCS in Edinburgh... He was going to go to the top of his profession."
Mr Mackenzie pointed out that Mr Datta had been a relative latecomer to the squash scene.
"He came up here about 1981 when the new squash court was built, and ’86 was the first year he was beaten – I beat him in the ’86 final," Mr Mackenzie recalled. "That was five years he went unbeaten here in Wick.
"He didn't take up squash until he came over to Britain. He was a cricket player and he was a tennis player, but he took to it like a duck to water.
"He took my son Graeme under his wing when Graeme was quite a young lad. He would never turn people away – he was so good at helping people and coaching you. He was just a great person."
In a social media post, the British International Doctors Association referred to Mr Datta as "an outstanding surgeon and educator" whose books and courses had helped thousands of young surgeons pass their exams.
In an interview last August for Wick Voices, the online oral history project of the Wick Society, Mr Datta spoke passionately about his admiration for the NHS, "the greatest service given to this country".
He also said: "I am very, very, very lucky to be in Wick and very grateful to the Lord for sending me up here."
The family is planning a celebration of Mr Datta's life, to be held in Wick, with everyone welcome. Due to the high Covid numbers in Caithness at present, this is likely to be delayed until late May or early June, with a date to be confirmed.