Andrew Orr

Andrew Orr gave up an offer to read history at Cambridge, opting instead to study medicine at Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. Playing in a rock group helped to support him during the long years before qualification. He became an Army doctor and was stationed in Berlin where he was able to observe at first hand the political and military realities of the Cold War. Later he served with the Scots Guards in Münster, Germany.

Andrew returned to Montrose, Scotland, where he was a family doctor for nearly 30 years, teaching, writing academic papers and journal articles. Involvement with heritage and history bodies led to the researching and writing (with his friend Angus Whitson) of the bestselling book Sea Dog Bamse, WW2 Canine Hero (2008). The success of the book was followed by appearances at the Edinburgh and Dundee book Festivals and numerous other events.

Within the Bamse book lay the seeds of a new curiosity about the multiple small boat escapes from Nazi-occupied Norway that took place in the war, and the reasons behind them. This had never been written about as an entity before. There was a story to be told. A series of discoveries and the encouragement of Norwegian friends turned curiosity into research and then into a compulsion to tell the whole saga. This has now been completed in this second book The Fight of the Vikings, Daring Escapes in Small Boats from Nazi-Occupied Norway 1940-45 (2024).

Andrew Orr still lives at Montrose with his wife Antonia. They have three children and a portfolio of seven interesting grandchildren.