Wick surgeon's life in pictures in new fundraising book
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Pradip Datta was an internationally renowned surgeon and an inspirational teacher. He was also a family man, a squash champion, a dedicated angler and an "adopted Wicker", and all these strands of his remarkable life have been brought together in a new pictorial book that is being published more than a year after his death at the age of 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, a detailed and often humorous account of his experiences during the 50-plus years after he left his native India.
He passed away in March 2022, before the follow-up could be finished. However, having been project-managed by his close friend Loretta Davis-Reynolds, Snapshots of a Caithness Surgeon's Life is now complete and is available locally.
It is packed with photos from squash competitions and trophy presentations, fishing trips, hospital events, professional gatherings with fellow surgeons, memorable 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", according to Mr Datta's caption.
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 seeks 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.
In a note on the back cover, Mr Datta's former squash adversary and long-time friend Roy Mackenzie writes: "I remember the excitement in his voice when he told me that, at last, The Naked Mountain Lands had been published. It would not be too long after this achievement that I would hear this same excitement as he briefed me on his next project, the sequel to his biography. This would complement the written story of his family life in Caithness, using some of the pictorial records on display. Meticulously planned as always, his dear friend Loretta project-managed the elements of this volume. Sadly, Pradip passed away before he could see the completion of this book but thankfully Loretta added the final touches – thus his plan was achieved."
Mr Datta spent 25 years working in Wick, first at the Bignold Hospital and then at Caithness General. Young surgeons travelled from around the world to be trained by him.
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 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 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.
He had suffered a life-changing stroke in 2017 at his home in Wick and was supported afterwards by Dr Davis-Reynolds along with carers. Mr Datta spent his last few months at Pentland View care home in Thurso.
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."
In her foreword to Snapshots of a Caithness Surgeon's Life, Dr Davis-Reynolds points out that the photos are mostly from after the family’s arrival in Wick in 1980 and that they depict "many happy times", both in Scotland and further afield.
She writes: "After settling with his family into Highland life in Wick so successfully, both professionally and socially, he considered himself a Wicker, having great affection not only for his friends and colleagues but also for his patients.
"His surgical career in Wick gave him tremendous satisfaction – he could not have been happier anywhere else. In later times, when out and about in the town, it gave him so much pleasure when a past patient would stop to say hello and, with his extraordinary memory, he would recall their particular details.
"His lifelong love of surgery, encompassing his skill as an outstanding teacher, came to fruition with the creation of ‘Datta’s Caithness FRCS Course’. With this, more than a thousand young surgeons, many from abroad, travelled up to Wick to benefit from his exacting tuition. He established his teaching in Edinburgh and in due course went on to establish courses in India for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He was active as a college tutor and examiner both here and abroad."
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. A book-signing is planned for the town's Tesco store on Friday, August 4, at 10am, to be attended by Dr Davis-Reynolds and Mr Mackenzie.
