Born on 31 December 1896 son of Thomas Massie MB he was educated at Guy's Hospital and won the Treasurer's medal in clinical surgery. He was house surgeon to R P Rowlands, was awarded the Arthur Durham travelling studentship in 1921, and took honours at the London BS examination in 1922. He had been a part-time demonstrator of physiology while a student, and became senior demonstrator of anatomy and wrote a successful textbook of *Surgical Anatomy* (1928). He was surgical registrar and in 1927 clinical tutor in surgery to Guy's final Fellowship class, which had been started a few years earlier by (Sir) Heneage Ogilvie; he proved a great teacher. About 1930 he was appointed assistant surgeon to W H Trethowan in the orthopaedic department during the serious illness of Constantine Lambrinudi, became an assistant surgeon to the Hospital in 1933 and full surgeon in 1945. He was surgeon to Bromley and Putney hospitals and lived at 5 Queen's Ride, Putney Common. During the second world war he was a Brigadier in the RAMC and consulting surgeon to the India Command (1942) and the 11 Army Group. He improved the Indian military hospitals and was created CBE in 1944. While in India he used his scant leisure to study local customs and cultures. While he was abroad his house was badly damaged by bombing, but he rebuilt it and remade his beautiful garden. After retiring in 1961 he was elected a Governor of Guy's Hospital and of the Medical School, and was surgical adviser to the South-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. Massie attended committees regularly though he disliked administration, but he rarely went to social or athletic gatherings or meetings of surgical societies being modest and shy in excess. Massie was interested in history, literature and art, and could talk well on many subjects. He had considerable knowledge of Dutch and Italian painting and of eighteenth-century furniture, of which he collected many fine examples. He practised at 55 Wimpole Street, and died a bachelor on 12 August 1964 aged 67. Publication *Surgical anatomy*. London, Churchill 1928; 2nd edit 1933; 3rd edit 1937; 4th edit 1940.