Robert Beck

Born: August 7, 1926; Died: December 14, 2013

Robert Beck, who has died aged 87, was the island of Tiree's much respected veterinary surgeon from 1959 to 1974 and a played a major part in developing its agricultural and musical traditions.

Born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, he was educated at Irvine Royal Academy and Glasgow Veterinary School, achieving his MRCVS in 1950 - Glasgow University later awarded him its BVMS - and meeting his future wife, Shena Calder, an outstanding first-year veterinary student who transferred to agricultural college.

He practised in Penzance, the Isle of Wight, Cockermouth, Kirkudbright and Auchinleck before settling in the Inner Hebridean island of Tiree as vet for both Tiree and Coll. The self-contained nature of Tiree gave him an ideal opportunity to rule his own roost. His fundamental aim was not merely to attend to sick animals, but essentially to improve the island's stock-rearing capability and the quality of its stock. This he did with great professionalism and a stubborn pride devoid of any pomp.

He was also a first-rate diagnostician. For him the most important matter was finding the cause and cure for any ailment. As chairman of the agricultural sub-committee of Tiree Council of Social Services and with the backing of the community, he undertook a rigorous inoculation programme from the mid 1960s, which made Tiree the first brucellosis-free area in the United Kingdom, and, by his own reckoning, the first in the world.

He served Tiree devotedly, responding instantly to calls for assistance, and arriving minutes later in his blue Land Rover, his curly red forelock leaping vigorously as he set about his task. His skill as a diagnostician was complemented by an uncanny ability to communicate with a frightened animal, calming it with soothing words. While treating an animal, he would explain what he was doing, and why. Duties small and large, from routine injections to major operations, were carried out with the same direct, forceful, but unfailingly kind professionalism.

His manner with animals sometimes contradicted his approach to humans. The former did not talk back, though the latter occasionally did. He was fond of an argument, and would hold his own to the end. He laid down his life's precepts in his boyhood years, and did not deviate from these. He was a devoted Scottish Nationalist and rejoiced in the creation of a Scottish Parliament. One of his last highlights was a visit to the Scottish Parliament as the guest of Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, when he was able to meet Nicola Sturgeon and sit in the First Minister's chair.

He knew the meaning of the word commitment, whether to his profession or his political party. At Auchinleck, he was responsible for the health of the last set of pit ponies in Scotland, and he transferred his affection to their Hebridean counterparts as a founding member of the Association for the Preservation and Development of the Eriskay Pony. He kept a couple of Eriskay ponies at his home Tigh a' Bhet, and it was not unusual to see Shena or one of their three boys, Robin, Drew or Gavin, riding a pony on a summer evening.

Keeping ponies was close to his professional interests, but he was also a committed piper, proud of Scotland's bagpipes and pipe music. He was not long settled in Tiree before he and Alasdair Sinclair, a noted local piper, created the Tiree Piping Society, which later became Tiree Pipe Band, of which he became pipe major. He was as rigorous in his leadership of the band as he was in his profession, and there too reaped the highest rewards. The island felt immensely proud when the band was placed second in Grade 4 at the World Pipe Band Championships in Oban in 1967.

It came as no surprise to Tiree when Mr Beck was appointed to a university lectureship in animal husbandry at the Royal Dick School of Veterinary Medicine, Edinburgh, in 1974. This was just recognition of his practical skills. Although missing the open spaces of Tiree, he found fulfilment in teaching at the Dick, where, with Ramsey Borthwick, he established another pipe band, the Royal Dick Pipers. He was also able to engage in research and writing, publishing a book on the Eriskay pony.

Tiree, however, did not lose him. The island was deep in his heart, and, following retirement in 1990, he and Shena returned to Tiree from Peebles in 1994. This time his creative influence was felt in the teaching of the bagpipe to pupils at Tiree High School. He qualified as a piping instructor through the College of Piping, in conjunction with the Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming, and produced a stream of fine young Tiree pipers, some of whom played him to his last resting-place at Kirkapol. Along with Gordon Connell, an equally able and devoted accordionist, he generated the flow of music which has given Tiree its annual music festival and its well-known bands, pre-eminently Skipinnish and Skerryvore.

He was predeceased by his devoted wife Shena, who was his foremost supporter. Yet Robert remained strong to the end, and wrote one final letter on his death-bed, thanking the organisers of Tiree Music Festival for dedicating one of their major prizes to him. It was fitting recognition of an unflinchingly loyal, proud, strong-minded and influential man. His contribution to music and to veterinary medicine will long outlast him.

He is survived by his sister Beth in Canada and by his sons Robin, Drew and Gavin and their families.