The hallmark of Law's life was his curiosity and flair for invention. As a 10-year-old boy he attempted to walk across the bottom of Hopeman harbour, in Moray, by filling his pockets with stones (to prevent his floating to the surface) and breathing through a long piece of rubber tubing with a collection of corks tied to the distal end to keep it above the water.
In 1953, aged 25, he built a television set which he lent to a friend who wanted to watch the Coronation. Law himself did not wish to watch the ceremony, preferring to spend the day launching the Fifie fishing boat which he had just finished restoring. Although he had never sailed before he took the boat down the Tay into the North Sea, and south along the coast of Fife to Granton in the Firth of Forth, with the sole aid of a Penguin manual on sailing.
The son of a broadcasting engineer with the BBC, he was born on July 7 1927 at Broughty Ferry, Dundee, and at birth was registered as James Turner Law – but from the first was known as Hamish (the Gaelic form of James); his mother, a nurse, came from the Isle of Harris and was a Gaelic speaker.
Hamish was educated at Elgin Academy, where he was made Dux of school in his final year, and also had a term at Gordonstoun before the school closed early in the war (due to the fact that the headmaster and some members of the staff were German). At Edinburgh University he read Physics, although he was always to regret not reading Medicine.
From 1948 to 1951 Law worked in the research laboratories at British Thomson-Houston (BTH) in Rugby, the electrical engineering company which made electric lamps, heavy transformers, generators and switchgear as used in the electricity generation and supply industries. The first jet engine built in Britain was made at BTH under the direction of Frank Whittle; the firm was also to become a major player in the development and construction of microwave radar.
Law was put on to the development of new types of valves for the generation of high frequencies, such as the klystron and the magnetron. In particular, he was involved in the design and improvement of a device known as "the cavity magnetron", important in the successful evolution of radar.
He spent the 1950s with Ferranti in Edinburgh, continuing his work on valves and other components for radar and guided military systems. He then moved to the United States, spending four years as senior scientist with Varian Associates at Palo Alto, California, one of the first hi-tech companies in what became known as Silicon Valley.
There Law worked on the early design and development of the travelling wave tube (TWT), a device to amplify radio frequency signals to high power and now used extensively in airborne radar and in electronic warfare and self-protection systems.
In 1964 he returned to Ferranti as manager of the newly created microelectronics group. During this period he also worked for his PhD in Electrical Engineering, awarded in 1971. By this stage of his career he was a pioneer in the development of thin film technology, a process particularly suited to the assembly of microchips and key to the development of high performance reliable radar systems used in military aircraft. It is Law's lasting legacy that the same engineering group is still a leader in this technology and a major supplier for the Eurofighter. He also represented this sector of the electrical industry on various advisory groups to the MoD.
From the mid-1960s Law was also a keen supporter of the development of national quality standards for the manufacture of such systems. He organised a "round table" meeting of all the interested parties which ultimately led to the creation and establishment of BS 9000, Britain's national approval system for quality control in microelectronics – which is still in place today.
It was during this period at Ferranti that his work began to segue into the medical career he had long wanted. This occurred when he was invited to co-operate with a surgeon and an anaesthetist at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh who were investigating the use of hyperthermia in the treatment of cancer. They needed a scientist to advise them on how to raise body temperature to kill cancer cells without also killing the patient.
Law suggested that, rather than trying to raise the whole body temperature, they should focus on trying to raise the temperature of only the organ affected by the cancer. His solution was simple but effective: a microwave heater which could be placed inside a body cavity at the point of the cancer and then activated. He designed and made the device himself, and his patent was subsequently bought by Johnson & Johnson. Law's invention is now widely used to treat heavy uterine bleeding, particularly in women of child-bearing age who previously would have had to undergo hysterectomies.
After five years (1978-83) as director of the bioengineering unit at Princess Margaret Rose Orthopaedic Hospital in Edinburgh, Law was appointed senior lecturer in the department of orthopaedic surgery at Edinburgh University.
This was a very happy period during which he worked closely with medical staff at all levels to help them solve problems which required engineering solutions. He was at last working in the medical environment he had always hankered after, and addressed matters such as the use of electrical currents to stimulate bone repair; the measurement of the diffusion of antibiotics in bone cement; and the comparative efficacy of high and low frequency ultrasound on soft tissue repair.
In 1987 he co-authored a book, with the surgeon Douglas W Lamb, The Limb-deficient Child –surgical, prosthetic and orthotic management.
Law was always looking for simple and elegant solutions to complex problems. In particular, he developed a portable, easy-to-use, computer-based system for gait measurement – important for the assessment of patients with conditions such as spina bifida or suffering the effects of strokes.
Unlike the expensive video-based systems used in gait laboratories, where the patient had to be brought to the equipment, Law's system could be set up and used by any individual therapist, and if necessary taken by car to the patient at home. It provided reliable, repeatable measurements of gait, allowing objective measurements to be recorded and compared from one visit to another no matter who was examining the patient at any given time. The system was taken up by centres in a number of countries, and has also been used for the early detection of stress fractures in animals such as dogs and horses.
Another of his medical inventions was a spinal hook (and the instrumentation for its application) to provide spinal fixation for fractured vertebrae without the need for invasive surgery.
In 1988 the Institution of Mechanical Engineers awarded Law the Donald Julius Groen Prize for "outstanding contributions to the field of Bioengineering over many years".
He retired from his university post in 1990, and was elected an honorary fellow.
Law's interests outside work were legion. He learned to fly on a Tiger Moth in the 1950s, retaining a private pilot's licence for many years, and had a share in a "powered" Falke glider. He piloted light aircraft in two International Air Rallies, winning trophies on both occasions. He made and flew model hot air balloons.
He retained his great love of boats and the sea, continuing to sail and maintain his own yacht until 2009, and was for many years a member of Royal Forth Yacht Club. He skied, played squash and tennis, and was a well-known figure in the world of curling.
As president of Edinburgh Rotary Club in 1989-90, Law used his casting vote to allow women to become members.
A great Francophile, in 1991 he bought a house in the Medoc, where he and his wife made many friends of various nationalities but with French as the common language. He would buy wine in bulk from the local chateau and bottle it himself.
Hamish Law, who died on November 25, is survived by his wife, Mary Catherine ("Emma") Emmerson, whom he married in 1979.
