Dr Peter Whaley Kershaw MD, FRCPE, FRCPsych

Peter Kershaw, son of a carpenter, attended school in Bradford before winning a place at Edinburgh University to study medicine. He won numerous prizes despite combining his studies with sport, being a keen athlete who would later run marathons and enjoy orienteering. After graduation in 1958 and a house physician post with Professor Donald in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary he won a university research scholarship to work with Professor Girdwood in the Department of Medicine, passing the MRCPE in 1962.

He decided on psychiatry as a career and moved to Glasgow as registrar then senior registrar in the department of psychological medicine at the Southern General Hospital.  From 1965 to 1968 he was lecturer in psychological medicine in Glasgow University and in 1968 he was appointed consultant psychiatrist at Ravenscraig Hospital in Greenock, moving in 1971 to Gartnavel Royal Hospital in Glasgow. He obtained membership of the Royal College of Psychiatry in 1971 and his MD in 1972. He was physician superintendent at Gartnavel from 1985 to 1989. He was elected FRCPE in 1975

His appointment in the West of Scotland coincided with the steep rise in presentations of patients with alcohol-related suicide attempts. His interest in this broadened into research – his MD dissertation was entitled “The complications of alcoholism: an epidemiological, statistical and nutritional study of alcoholics admitted to a general hospital psychiatric unit”.  His research revealed the social, physical and psychological damage caused by alcohol in Scotland and the urgent need for multidisciplinary teams to meet the challenges presented, in which clinical teams worked alongside other community agencies.  He went on with colleagues to establish such a multi-disciplinary addiction service at Gartnavel hospital and to build close links with community groups and Alcoholics Anonymous. This Alcohol Problems Treatment Unit provided a seven-day service in Glasgow for 42 years in which the front-line services were supported by a specialist day hospital and inpatient programme until Covid-19. Thereafter it has continued as the 15-bed in-patient unit, appropriately named after him in 2005.

Peter was very well liked by those who worked with him, having a positive attitude and a notable sense of humour.  He continued running well into middle age and added climbing over 200 Munros to his marathons. He retired in 2000 to continue his hobby of landscape painting, for which he had a special talent. He was also known as an excellent chef who gave memorable dinner parties.  He had married Irene when he was in Edinburgh in 1964, and they had two children, Mark who died tragically in 1992 and Kathryn, who looked after him devotedly in his final years after Irene died in 2000.

Peter himself died after contracting Covid-19  while in hospital. He had led a life of service to the most vulnerable in society, and his legacy is in the Unit named after him and those who follow him in serving in it.

Anthony Seaton

Bruce Ritson