Jim Dobbin

Born: May 26, 1941; Died: September 7, 2014

JIM Dobbin, who has died aged 73, was a Fife-born career NHS microbiologist who became a popular Labour councillor later in life and eventually Labour/Co-operative MP for the Heywood and Middleton constituency of Greater Manchester.

He died suddenly in Slupsk, in Polish Pomerania, near the Baltic Sea, while on a parliamentary trip for human rights organised by the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights organisation. The group was headed by his friend Lord (John) Prescott, the former Labour Deputy Prime Minister now serving in the Council of Europe.

Although politically Labour, Mr Dobbin was socially conservative, a devout catholic often criticised within and without Westminster for his unfashionable conservative views on divorce, gay rights, abortion and assisted suicide. He was a past chairman of the All-Party Pro-Life Group and believed passionately that abortion was wrong.

Despite these often controversial views, his integrity, compassion, tolerance of other opinions, work rate and good old-fashioned decency made him one of the most-respected MPs over the last 17 years, even after the expenses and other scandals. Colleagues dubbed him "Gentleman Jim" and politicians from across the spectrum and beyond these shores expressed shock and grief at his sudden death, including Fabio Picardo, Chief Minister of Gibraltar.

Mr Dobbin, with his trademark, increasingly-white goatee beard, had been chairman of the all-party British parliamentary group on Gibraltar and was deeply involved in dealing with the regular disputes between the UK and Spain. A stunned Lord Prescott said in Poland: "Jim was an excellent local MP, a strong believer in Europe, a proud Scot and a passionate defender of the NHS. A great comrade."

James Dobbin was born in Kincardine, Fife, on the northern banks of the Firth of Forth, to William Dobbin, a catholic coalminer wary of communist control of his union, and Catherine McCabe, a millworker. He went to St. Columba's R.C. High School, at the time in Cowdenbeath (now in Dunfermline) and St. Andrew's R.C. High School in Kirkcaldy, all the time supporting Glasgow Celtic FC, as he would for the rest of his life, regularly watching matches at Parkhead. Fears of health risks to both his mother and father, in the mines and mills, drove him to dedicate his career to the NHS.

After completing his national service in the early 1960s, he went to Napier College, Edinburgh, graduating BSc in 1966 in virology and bacteriology, qualifying him as an NHS microbiologist. He moved south with his wife Pat to work in the Royal Oldham Hospital, Greater Manchester, where he would spend 22 years as well as eight more in other hospitals in the region.

In 1983, despite Mr Dobbin's heavy hospital duties, Jack McCann, Labour MP for Rochdale, persuaded him to stand as a Rochdale borough councillor, which he successfully did, serving as council leader in 1996-97. In 1992, he was put forward as a candidate for MP for the marginal seat of Bury South but was narrowly beaten.

Five years later, he was named Labour Co-op candidate for Heywood and Middleton, part of Rochdale borough, to replace Labour's Jim Callaghan (not to be confused with the former Prime Minister of the same name, who had long since retired). Mr Dobbin won and entered the Palace of Westminster at the age of 56, regaining the seat until his death.

He used his medical expertise well in the Commons, speaking out on health issues while avoiding many MPs' tendencies to be "universal experts," wanting to be heard on issues far outside their knowledge. Mr Dobbin served in several All-Party Parliamentary Groups, including on Hospice and Palliative Care, Global Action Against Childhood Pneumonia, Involuntary Tranquilliser Addiction and Child Health and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases. His dream was to see people in the developing world get proper treatment and sanitation.

Last year, after the murder in London of British army Fusilier Lee Rigby, one of his Middleton constituents, he was seen comforting the soldier's family at the funeral in Bury. After he opposed the same-sex marriage bill last year, he was somewhat ostracised by many in the gay community.

Since the 1997 devolution referendum, as a Scot down south, he expressed concerns as to how far Scotland could go it alone. He felt the Scottish parliament would turn Scottish constituency MPs at Westminster into "second-class" representatives. He did not live quite long enough to experience September 18 and whatever its legacy will be.

For his work with Westminster's All-Party Pro-Life Group, Pope Benedict XVI gave Mr Dobbin a "Papal Knighthood" in 2008. To friends, he recently expressed concern that the Vatican had not stripped Jimmy Savile of the same award, given by Pope John Paul II in 1990. "His (Savile's) honour should not have been bestowed," a Vatican spokesman said. "However, it is not possible to strike anyone off a list that does not exist. The honour expires with the death of the individual."

A few weeks before his death, Mr Dobbin had been chosen by Labour Co-op to run again for Heywood and Middleton next year, a seat now vacant.

Jim Dobbin is survived by his wife of 50 years, Pat (née Russell), their two sons and two daughters and their grandchildren.