Ken Rankin obituary

Ken Rankin
Ken Rankin came close to deportation from Zimbabwe after he documented the abuses of Robert Mugabe’s troops Public Domain

My friend Ken Rankin, who has died of a stroke aged 72, was born in Egypt, trained in Scotland, served as a flying doctor in Africa and a ship's doctor in the Mediterranean, and was a professor of orthopaedics in Pretoria, South Africa. I was his neighbour in both Dundee and Zimbabwe.

Ken graduated from Edinburgh University in 1963 and four years later went to work in South Africa as a surgeon at what is now Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital, the huge training hospital in Soweto.

At the height of the apartheid era, interracial relationships were impossible, so when Ken met his future wife, Joyce, it had to be in secret. Their plan was to leave and meet again abroad but this was foiled when Joyce was detained, the fate of so many who stood up for their conscience. It was to be another four years before Ken and Joyce were reunited in Zambia, after she had escaped in a haulage truck.

Thereafter the couple moved between Africa and Dundee, where Ken worked as a senior lecturer and where they brought up their five children. Ken had by now obtained a pilot's licence, and when they moved to Mozambique in 1980, he developed a major interest in the support of outlying small hospitals and in the training of orthopaedic surgeons. The needs of these hospitals were huge, and Ken's skills with sick or injured children were legendary.

Moving to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe shortly after independence, Ken saw many examples of the early repression of people in Matabeleland by Robert Mugabe's notorious Fifth Brigade (disbanded in 1988). He documented the wounds that he saw in the trauma and accident wards and presented his report to the Zimbabwean government and non–governmental organisations. This would have led to his expulsion but, following the intervention of powerful voices within the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, the expulsion order was rescinded.

After the fall of apartheid, Ken was appointed professor of orthopaedics in Pretoria. During this period he developed the training system for young doctors which was so badly needed. His warmth, humanity and determination were outstanding, and for his work in Africa he was appointed OBE in 2002.

Ken and Joyce returned to Dundee in 2009. The following year he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia but remained cheerful and active, despite the debilitating treatments. He is survived by Joyce and his children, Oliver, Vikela, Nomzamo, Samora and Alan.