A GLASS of sherry and a card from the Queen may suffice for most who get to celebrate their 100th birthday. Not so Perry Harrison.
This retired GP from Strathblane decided to mark his centenary this week with an exhibition of his paintings to raise funds for charity.
As a medical student at Glasgow University in the 1930s, Dr Harrison took up the paint brush and the stethoscope simultaneously: “There was an anatomy class and I found I could remember things if I recorded them visually.”
Later, as a single-handed family doctor in a rural practice with three children at home, there was little time for leisure. Yet he always carried his sketch book on his rounds, often pausing for a few minutes to record scenes that took his fancy before working them up later in watercolours or pen and wash. He is a life member of Bearsden Art Club.
Dr Harrison was one of twins, born in Guildford, at the height of the First World War. One of his first memories was the sight of Zeppelins heading for London.
His father, who served with the Royal Engineers, was treated at Craiglockhart in Edinburgh for shellshock but made a good recovery and in the 1920s brought his family to Glasgow, where the twins attended Glasgow Academy before being packed off to boarding school.
Dr Harrison initially chose orthopaedic surgery when he qualified in 1939 but after serving in the Merchant and Royal Navy during the war, settled on the life of a country doctor.
He arrived in Strathblane in 1950 with his wife Cecile and two daughters. A son completed the family and over the following 35 years Dr Harrison became something of an institution. “My patients often spanned three generations, sometimes four," he said.
Even since retirement, his energy has been legendary. In 2000, aged 84, he competed in a 10k race from Killearn to Strathblane. In 2007 the doctor’s wife and his twin brother both passed away. However, at age 96, Dr Harrison was still delivering meals-on-wheels.
As well as taking a lively interest in the lives of his seven great-grandchildren, he continues to produce some artwork each week.
The exhibition at the Kirk Rooms, Strathblane ends today. Proceeds are going to Medecins Sans Frontieres and Practical Action.
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