ON November 4, 1940, Shane Watson decided to use his medical skills by enlisting in the Royal Australian Navy as a Surgeon-Lieutenant.

When he finally took up duty on HMAS Nestor, he spent six months on escort and patrol duties in the North Atlantic and Arctic Circle.

HMAS Nestor's next deployment was to Gibraltar, where Shane renewed his interest in underwater diving with British divers.

He also served with his ship when it was ordered to join the British Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean and then with the Mediterranean Fleet, where they were involved with the Alexandria to Malta convoys.

Nestor achieved some fame when it attacked and sank a German U-Boat U127 off the Cape of St Vincent in 1942.

On June 12, 1942, HMAS Nestor was one of 56 warships carrying fuel and supplies to Allied operations on Malta.

Three days later Nestor was attacked by enemy aircraft in what was called "bomb alley", south-west of Crete and 100 miles north of Tobruk, when three bombs landed almost simultaneously and caused major damage to its boiler room.

During this incident Shane emerged a hero when he led a rescue team to release trapped engine room staff.

Diving into the death compartment, Shane pulled four stockers out of the submerged boiler room until all were rescued. He performed artificial resuscitation on the men, but none survived.

For his heroic action, Shane was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

His citation read: "He displayed outstanding bravery in immediately entering No.1 boiler room in order to rescue the crew who he knew must be either killed or seriously injured. Of the conditions in the boiler room, he had no idea. When he entered it he found it in darkness and flooded. In spite of this, he dived repeatedly until all the men were recovered. Unfortunately, they had all been killed."

After the Nestor was scuttled, owing to the extensive damage to its superstructure, and the traumatic experiences of the rescue, Shane was posted back to Australia for rest and recreation, as well as re-kitting.

He was attached to the Balmoral Naval Base in Sydney.

In late 1943, he was posted to HMAS Arunta, where he served in the Pacific, took part in the bombardment of Balikpapan in support of allied landings, and the Battle of Leyte in The Philippines in 1944.

Back in Sydney in 1945, Shane was discharged from the Navy on July 7, 1946, but joined the Volunteer Naval Reserve and was appointed Underwater Consultant for New South Wales with the rank of Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander.

In January 1946 Shane married Freda, a physiotherapist. He set up a practice near the Garden Island Naval Base, where the Navy Diving School was located.

He was called on to treat cases of "the bends" and this revived his interest in diving and underwater research and, with other experts, he experimented to find a successful deterrent to shark and ray attacks. He also worked with legendary underwater diver Ben Cropp to better understand these sea creatures.

Shane compared his notes and findings with Professor Perry Gilbert, from NASA's space program, who was keen to find a repellent to sharks in order to protect astronauts landing in the Pacific.

In the 1950s, Shane and Freda, who now had two children, relocated to England, where he worked at an orthopaedic hospital. After a third child was born Shane decided to return to Sydney to continue in his medical practice.

By 1963, Shane's marriage broke down when his wife refused to return to England with him even though his new position included a house for his family.

He completed another degree in Glasgow and then worked in the spinal unit of Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Buckinghamshire.

Keen to further his knowledge, Shane went to Houston, Texas, to complete another degree and work in a hospital with spinal specialist, Dr deBakey.

In 1966, Shane returned to Australia when his mother died, to be near his ailing father, who was in a retirement home.

Shane remarried in 1969 and moved to Melbourne, where he set up a practice at Frankston. After many years Shane was hospitalised, in 1994, with a bout of pleurisy, which brought on a heart attack.

In November 1994 Shane died after a lifetime of dedication to medicine.

Being a former naval hero, he was given the honour of having the surviving members of the N-class Destroyer Association march at his funeral.

Shane Andrew Clarke Watson was one of the outstanding academic students to have passed through the Scots College gates and led a life of dedication to his profession.

He was a true hero, as he demonstrated on the Nestor in 1942, and will go down in the history of the college as one of those outstanding young men who attended during 1930-1945.