Donald Hugh MacKay was born in Manchester on 26 May 1911, and was educated at Manchester Grammar School and the University of Manchester where he graduated MB ChB with honours in 1934. He had had a distinguished undergraduate career, winning university medals in anatomy, pathology, and medicine and prizes for surgery and diseases of children. MacKay was a house surgeon at the Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1935, a demonstrator in anatomy in 1936 and 37, and for the next three years he held more senior posts in the hospital, surgical registrar, resident casualty officer and resident surgical officer which enabled him to obtain the FRCS in 1940. During this training period he came under the influence of W R Douglas, W B Hey, and A H Southam. In 1940 he volunteered for war service in the RAMC, served in West Africa, and was demobilized in 1946. He was then appointed chief assistant to a surgical unit at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and in 1947 honorary surgeon to the Stockport Infirmary. In 1940 he became consultant surgeon to Macclesfield and District Hospitals, and it was there that he spent the rest of his career. MacKay married in 1955 Jean Mary Sheldon, a medical graduate of Manchester, and they had two daughters. His hobbies were photography and growing orchids. When he died on 30 May 1972, only a few days after his 61st birthday, his wife and daughters survived him.