Born at Dalry, Ayrshire on 25 March 1872, the fifth son and ninth youngest child of Andrew Blair Aitken and his wife Jane Young. He was educated at the Ayrshire Academy, Ayr, and at Glasgow University where he graduated in 1893. After holding resident appointments at Oldham Infirmary and the Wirral Children's Hospital, Birkenhead, he was appointed in 1894 senior house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, Blackburn, Lancashire, and to this hospital he devoted the rest of his working life. He took the conjoint qualification and the Fellowship in 1901 after working at University College Hospital, London, and was appointed surgeon to the infirmary; he became senior surgeon in 1914, and consulting surgeon in 1932. He was elected president of the infirmary in 1943, and patron in 1948, when the Aitken ward was opened. His portrait was presented to him on his retirement from the active staff in 1932 and was unveiled by Lord Moynihan. During the war of 1914-18 Aitken served at the Calderstones Military Hospital. He was a pioneer, full of energy and enthusiasm, to increase the efficiency of his hospital. He had a large private practice and was an active magistrate at Blackburn for 26 years. From 1948 he was chairman of the Blackburn Insurance Committee Industrial and National Insurance Acts. He practised at Oakfeld, New Road, Blackburn till his retirement in 1941 to Bezza, Preston. Aitken married in 1905 Theodora Beatrice Armistead. He died 6 October 1950, aged 78, survived by his only son, J B Aitken of Blackburn. Publications:- Aneurysm of the abdominal aorta in a child. *Lancet*, 1898, 1, 1115. A case of pemphigus serpiginosus. *Lancet*, 1898, 2, 139. Gastric ulcer perforating twice in five months. *Brit med J*. 1904, 1, 665. Case of gastrostomy (Senn's method). *Brit med J*. 1908, 1, 1173.