Born on 4 August 1907 the son of W W Coltart MRCS of Epsom he was educated at Epsom College and St Bartholomew's Hospital, to which he had won a scholarship. He qualified in 1930 and was, in succession, house surgeon to Sir Girling Ball, J P Hosford, R C Elmslie, S L Higgs and Sir Harold Gillies. Following this he was resident medical officer at King Edward VII Hospital for Officers and orthopaedic registrar at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. Later he worked at the British Red Cross Clinic for Rheumatism, the Arthur Stanley Institute at the Middlesex Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, and for the Hertfordshire County Council. For a time he was orthopaedic surgeon at East Ham Memorial Hospital. During the war of 1939-45 he attained the rank of Wing Commander RAFVR, with charge of the surgical division of Church Village RAF Hospital. After the war he was appointed an additional orthopaedic surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He held a Hunterian Professorship in 1948, and wrote extensively on orthopaedic problems. He was active in the British Medical Association, being vice-president of the Orthopaedic Section at Brighton in 1956 and secretary at the joint meeting with the Irish Medical Association in Dublin in 1952. He was a man of great energy, with a fine presence, and was an excellent teacher. He had been an athlete in his youth and was later a keen fisherman. He died on 5 June 1963 aged 55, survived by his wife.