​Dr Stone had no cape but was a household hero in the Inch - Donald Anderson

The area grew around Inch House, a Scottish vernacular tower house dating from 1617. It is a category A listed building.

The house was sold to the City of Edinburgh Council in 1946 and served as a primary school before the building was turned into a community centre.

Dr Stone had contacted the council to see if he could establish a surgery in the Inch, but unfortunately it refused.

He didn’t give up and the council eventually identified a tiny site in a small lane off Walter Scott Avenue, which is one of the main streets in the first phase of the Inch scheme.

The land was eventually given to him for the princely sum of £6 and ten shillings a year.

It was amazing to see the warmth of the welcome for Ann Marie many residents there remembered Dr Stone well, and clearly remembered him with great affection. It must have been a tough gig being the first doctor in a council scheme in the south of Edinburgh during what were the baby boom years.

Dr Stone delivered many of the local children – including Bill Cook, author of the above mentioned history of the Inch, with home deliveries being very common back then.

One of my brother’s friends raved about him and told of the time he bravely stepped in to treat a victim of a fight outside one of the local pubs.

Everyone in the Inch at that time knew and loved Dr Stone.

I am sure that his daughter Ann Marie understood by the end of the meeting that her father was a local hero to residents throughout the Inch estate and was both loved and respected by all.

As the saying goes, not all heroes wear capes.