Newly published pictorial book was Wick surgeon's 'last ambition'
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Pradip Datta would have been delighted with a newly published book capturing the "happy times" he spent in Caithness, according to the close friend who took charge of the project after the internationally renowned surgeon passed away last year.
Dr Loretta Davis-Reynolds was speaking at a book-signing in Wick's Tesco store to promote Snapshots of a Caithness Surgeon's Life, featuring photographs that reflect many aspects of his life after moving to the town in 1980. Proceeds from the book will go to three good causes.
Mr Datta spent 25 years working in Wick, first at the Bignold Hospital and then at Caithness General, and young surgeons would travel from around the world to be trained by him. He served on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and was later appointed as honorary secretary.
Away from his professional life he was a family man, a squash champion and a dedicated angler.
He suffered a life-changing stroke in 2017 at his home in Wick and was supported afterwards by Dr Reynolds along with carers. Mr Datta spent his last few months at Pentland View care home in Thurso and died in March 2022, aged 81.
Snapshots of a Caithness Surgeon's Life was intended by Mr Datta to be a companion volume to his 2020 book The Naked Mountain Lands, an account of his experiences during the 50-plus years after he left his native India.
Dr Reynolds said: “It was Pradip's last ambition, as it turned out, to publish this book of photographs – and it grew legs.
“Especially once he was in Thurso, we were looking through photographs and he was picking out which ones he would like incorporated.
“There are just a few photographs from before coming to Wick but primarily it's after he came to Wick because that was the most important part of his life, really. He loved it and did so many things here.
“That was really where it started, and sadly, before it was completed, he died and so I took it over.
"There was a bit of a gap because I didn't feel like doing it for some time. But it has been a joy, really, and to see it come to fruition has been great.
“I'm sure he would be delighted, because it shows so many happy times in his life up here.
“If he hadn't come to Wick, a number of things that he achieved wouldn't have happened – all his teaching, the way he set that up, and all the college work... He really in many ways put it on the map.
“It marries in with the Naked Mountain Lands because pictorially it shows some of the things that he talked about in that.”
Sales of The Naked Mountain Lands have raised more than £7000 for Hearing and Sight Care, which helps people with hearing or sight loss in Caithness and north Sutherland; St Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Strathtay; and Women in Need, which works to improve the lives of underprivileged women and children in India. All proceeds from Snapshots of a Caithness Surgeon's Life will go to the same three causes.
Dr Reynolds was accompanied at Friday's book-signing by Roy Mackenzie, Mr Datta's former squash opponent and long-time friend, who wrote a note for the back cover.
Mr Mackenzie said: “It complements the Naked Mountain Lands and it ties up Pradip's life here in pictures. It is fitting that he got as far as he did with this and I'm delighted to see it coming out, thanks to Loretta.
“He left a great legacy.”
The book is packed with photos from squash competitions and trophy presentations, fishing trips, hospital events, professional gatherings, holidays and Mr Datta's work for the Institute of Advanced Motorists. There are also images of him receiving his MBE from the Queen – "the greatest honour of my life", as stated in his caption.
Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), he 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". Mr Datta arrived in the UK in 1967 and had spells in various parts of the country before taking a job at the Bignold.
He and his late wife Swati settled in Wick and his mother lived with them in the town for a number of years.
Mr Datta was a keen angler, taking his son Sandip all over Scotland and further afield in pursuit of fish. Sandip is now a child psychiatrist living in Perthshire and his wife Samantha runs a fishing holiday business.
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.
A celebration of Mr Datta's life was held in Wick St Fergus Church in June last year, attended by friends, family members and former colleagues, and streamed live online so that people in other parts of the world could see it.
During the event, his son said: "My dad was a man of principle and would always want to help others less fortunate than him. I suppose this was why he never claimed his state pension. The reason was because he believed there were others out there that needed the money and help more than he did.
"Every single penny that my dad earned from teaching over the years, and also all the proceeds from his book, have gone to his chosen charities.
"The people of Caithness, especially Wick, meant so much to him and he felt like he was an adopted Wicker."
Copies of Snapshots of a Caithness Surgeon's Life are on sale at the Hearing and Sight Care centres in Wick and Thurso and in Meiklejohn's shop in Thurso Street, Wick, priced £10.
