Obituary: Andrew Young Hastings, 89, former naval officer

Andrew Young Hastings, a decorated former Naval officer whose wartime experiences led him to work improving the lives of others, has died, aged 89.

Mr Hastings was born in 1920 in Falkirk, where his father was a director of the iron works. His mother was a professional photographer. The youngest of five, he had one sister and three brothers.

Their father had a disability and died when Mr Hastings was very young.

The family moved to a flat in Edinburgh and he attended George Watson's College. Not long after the move, however, he lost his mother, and stayed with two of his elder brothers.

On leaving school Mr Hastings went to Edinburgh University to study history.

In 1941 he volunteered for the Royal Navy and joined as an Ordinary Seaman. He was later selected for officer training. On successful completion of this he joined the destroyer Wishart, operating off Gibraltar.

Later he was assigned to a new destroyer, the Zealous, which took part in the Arctic convoys taking supplies to Murmansk.

On one of those convoys his ship made a dramatic rescue of more than 500 women, children, and old men, hiding in caves on the island of Srya, off the Norweigian coast.

As well as his campaign medals, and the Defence medal, Mr Hastings was recently awarded the Arctic Star, belatedly given to those who had taken part in the Arctic convoys to Murmansk.

Mr Hamilton's original aim after the war ended was to join the Colonial Service, but his experiences during the war made him aware that many colonies would be seeking independence.

He joined the Moral Rearmament Action (MRA), fighting what one fellow officer described as "the war of ideas on the global front".

In 1957, in Kentucky, US, he proposed to Hazel Squares, from England, and a year later they married in Switzerland. After the birth of their sons, Alexander and Robert, they settled in Scotland.

Mr Hamilton was ordained as an elder of the Kirk, serving at Murrayfield and then on the kirk session of the congregation at St Andrew's Church, West Linton.

He enjoyed being chair of the Historical Society in the village, and attending the annual general meetings of the Edinburgh University Court.

Alexander and Robert married within months of each other in 2007, bringing Lorna and Claire into the family and subsequently a granddaughter, Alice.