AN internationally renowned poet who spent 17 years in the Malvern Hills has died.

Gael Turnbull, pictured left, died on July 7 at a family event in Pembridge, Herefordshire.

Born in Edinburgh in 1928, he divided his early life between Canada, America and Britain, moving to Stiffords Bridge with his first wife, Jonnie, in 1964 and to Woodbury Rise, Malvern in 1974.

Trained at medical school in the University of Pennsylvania, he worked as a GP in Worcester at Ronkswood Hospital and St John's House Surgery.

A poet in his spare time, he also founded and performed with the Faithful City Morris dancers, danced with the Border Morris Men and performed sketches as a comedy doctor at Bromyard Folk Festival.

Jonnie, who still lives in Malvern, remembers a gentle and thoughtful man. She said poet friends teased Turnbull about his transatlantic spelling and felt it was his mix of accents that led to a fascination with word structures and meanings.

The couple had three children, Shari, Julie and Christine. Julie, who lives in Malvern, described her father as down-to-earth. She said she became aware of his talents when listening to him reading at a Cambridge festival.

"I was sitting in the gallery and I just thought, Wow! That's my dad," she said. "Dad was just always scribbling. It's just one of the abiding images of him. When we went camping he would always go off somewhere with his notebook and if it was raining, he would sit in the car."

She said she remembered being acutely embarrassed when he turned up at an event in Alice Ottley School, where she was a pupil, in loons, waistcoat and collarless shirt.

"I nearly died of embarrassment but at the same time I really admired and respected him for not pretending to be someone he wasn't," she said.

His funeral takes place on Wednesday in Edinburgh, where he lived with his second wife Jill Iles. His family plan to hold a public memorial service in the next year.