Dr Peter Murray Kerr DSC Royal Navy

Peter Murray Kerr, who has died aged 95, was a wartime ship’s surgeon, and in peacetime a general practitioner who played a leading part in the development of the National Health Service in southern Scotland.

Murray Kerr served as ship’s doctor in the elderly destroyer Skate in 1942 on Atlantic convoys, and in October that year he treated survivors of the cruiser Curacao who had been run down by the line Queen Mary.

In June 1943 he joined the newly commissioned destroyer Savage in the famous 23rd Destroyer Flotilla, which the next month escorted British and American battleships during Operation Camera off the Norwegian coast in July 1943, and the carriers Illustrious and Unicorn during Operation Governor. In the following autumn and winter Savage was employed on Arctic convoy duties, constantly under attack from German bombers and U-boats and frequently exposed to atrocious weather, it was an extremely hazardous duty and losses were high.

On Boxing Day 1943 Savage was part of the escort for the battleship Duke of York and the cruiser Jamaica during the Battle of North Cape, when the German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk, after the 23rd Flotilla launched a massed destroyer attack on their huge opponent: after wards Savage escorted the damaged Saumarez to the Kola Inlet before returning to Scapa Flow with Scorpion and the Norwegian Stord.

On another occasion in March 1945, during convoy JN 65, Murray Kerr saved the lives of about 60 survivors of the destroyer Lapwing who had been sunk by a U-968 about 100 miles off Murmansk.

When not caring for the ship’s company, Murray Kerr was responsible for entertainment, and he played the violin: fortunately he knew most tunes from Bach to bawdy. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his gallantry during active operations against the enemy at sea, though personally he reckoned his finest moment was meeting his future wife in Rosyth where she was a WRNS coxswain.

Peter Murray Kerr was born on January 1, 1915, the son of Dr P Murray Kerr of Dumfries, one of the best known doctors in the south of Scotland, surgeon to the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, who was also Colonel of the 5th Battalion of the KOSB and led them to Gallipoli in 1915. Young Murray Kerr was educated St Ninian’s, Moffat, at Sedbergh School in Yorkshire, and Edinburgh University, where he graduated in 1941.

After leaving the Royal Navy in 1945, Murray Kerr worked briefly at as a house surgeon in Leicester and at Cresswell Maternity Hospital, Dumfries, before joining the doctors’ practice in Castle Douglas where he spent the next thirty five years.

He played a prominent part in the affairs of the stewartry of Dumfries and Galloway. He was elected a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1963 and a fellow of the British Medical Association in 1974 after serving twenty years on the BMA’s executive committee. Murray Kerr was also a member of the General Medical Services Committee in Scotland from 1956 to 1973 as well as serving on numerous local health committees.

On retirement in 1982 Murray Kerr left Scotland for his wife’s family home near Tavistock, Devon. There at Belgrove Grove he learned new skills of estate management and was drawn into local politics.

His boyhood holidays were spent at Rockcliffe, Dumfries he learned to sail and to love the sea. As a medical student he was captain of the Edinburgh University Boat Club and awarded a rowing blue. He became commodore of the Solway Yacht Club and kept a succession of racing yachts at Kippford. A talented helmsman, normally crewed by his wife, he competed in a number of Scottish and British National Championships and became a role model for the club’s youngsters because of his skills, his approachability and his patience.

He was also an active president of the Solway Car Club, and driving souped-up sports saloons was a passion. He surprised everyone by taking up karate when he was sixty. He also took a keen interest in the affairs of the Royal British Legion in Scotland and was president of the Castle Douglas Branch.

In Devon he resumed sailing, buying a cruising yacht which he kept on the Tamar, and, a long time member of the Royal Naval Sailing Association, he became chairman of the Plymouth Harbour Yacht Moorings Committee.

Murray Kerr who died on February 7, 2010, married Philippa Periera in 1945. She survives him with their son and daughter.