Norman Walter Nisbet was a former director of research at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, Oswestry. He was born in Edinburgh on 23 March 1909, the son of a science master. He first qualified as a dentist, but abandoned dentistry in favour of medicine. After completing his training in general surgery in Edinburgh and Birmingham, he began his orthopaedic career. In 1938 he was appointed as a house surgeon at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, where at the outbreak of the Second World War he became resident surgical officer. During the war years, the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt was virtually a military hospital. Nisbit was responsible for the surgical care and rehabilitation of many war casualties. One German airman crashed not far from the hospital. Norman treated his serious fractures by standard methods and his burns with ‘Tannifax’, which turned the burnt area black. When the airman saw the black area he was horrified, thinking that he had been deliberately painted black as a distinguishing mark - what the English do to their prisoners - according to German propaganda. He was only reassured by seeing a British soldier, similarly treated, peeling away the black tan on his own injury to reveal healthy skin underneath. Of the hundreds of war wounded Nisbet treated, the German patient was the only one who sent him a letter of thanks. During this time, he had an unrivalled opportunity of learning all aspects of orthopaedic and fracture surgery under the influence and guidance of Sir Harry Platt, Sir Reginald Watson-Jones and Sir Henry Osmond-Clarke, amongst others. He also worked closely with Dame Agnes Hunt, the founder of the hospital. Between 1946 and 1947 he served in the Royal Air Force as a senior orthopaedic consultant with the rank of wing commander, in charge of the orthopaedic unit at the RAF Hospital, Wroughton, Wiltshire. On demobilisation, he became a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital, Coventry. He also held the posts of orthopaedic surgeon to the Paybody Orthopaedic Home and the Coleshill Orthopaedic Hospital for Children. Nisbit was in New Zealand from 1950 to 1962 as associate professor in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Otago and director of the orthopaedic and fracture department of the Dunedin Hospital. The University of Otago later created a personal chair of orthopaedic surgery for him, its first personal chair. He always had a keen interest in medical research. While he was in Dunedin, spurred on by the then professor of surgery, Sir Michael Woodruff, he began working on the biology of transplantation with special reference to immunology and genetics. He returned to the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hosptial in 1964 as the first director of the purpose-built Charles Salt Research Centre. He continued his work in immunology and published extensively. He retired as director of research in 1983, at the age of 74. However, having received a personal MRC grant to further his work into the origins of osteoclasts, he stayed on for another three years. With his wife, Mary, he retired to the south coast of England. His passion had always been shooting. He maintained a gun in a shoot in Sussex until the age of 93. Thereafter he continued shooting clay pigeons. Mary, who had been in declining health for many years, died in 2005. They had been married for 60 years. Nisbet, having looked after Mary for many years, continued to live completely independently. He swam daily, shopped, cooked and cleaned for himself and carried on driving his car until, at the age of 95, his health slowly went down hill and he began to depend on others. He died on 25 September 2007 at the age of 98 and is survived by his daughter, Lesley, son-in-law St John and grandchildren, Katherine and Tom.