(Contributed by G Beveridge)
After war service a number of doctors were attached to the Department of Dermatology for specialist training. They were all keen to obtain the MRCPEdin. which, at that time, included a paper and clinical examination in a specialist branch of medicine chosen from an approved list which included dermatology.
Pat Hannay, Ian McCallum and Eric Donaldson were the best known of the group who moved on to become consultants in the new National Health Service. Others went abroad, mainly to New Zealand and Australia. Ian McCallum moved to Nottingham and Eric Donaldson to Stoke on Trent where they established departments of dermatology along Edinburgh lines.
Dr Hannay was appointed Consultant Dermatologist in 1949 to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh which he served with great distinction until he retired in 1974. He had a six-session contract which was the norm for a consultant at that time. He was an astute clinician who consulted every morning and was the mainstay of the Outpatient Department. At one o’clock he left to go to his private consulting rooms in Ainslie Place. In addition he maintained his interest in Dermatopathology which was common to all those who trained in Edinburgh during the Percival era.
On retiral he moved to Dunkeld where he laid out a new garden with a large collection of rhododendrons and azaleas which gave him a great deal of pleasure until he died aged 92 years.