Born in Belfast in 1940, Caves was educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He entered medical school at Queen's University, Belfast, in 1958, graduated in 1964, and began a period of general surgical training in Belfast and Edinburgh. After taking the Edinburgh Fellowship in 1968 he began his training in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. In 1969 he took the English FRCS before moving to the cardiothoracic unit at Brompton Hospital in 1970. There he was introduced to the cardiac surgery that became his life's work. In 1971 he was awarded the British- American Research Fellowship of the British and American Heart Associations, and began work at Stanford University, California, under Dr Norman Shumway. This proved a particularly happy association and he remained at Stanford to become chief resident in 1972 and staff surgeon in the cardiac transplantation service in 1973. In July 1974 he returned to Britain to become senior lecturer in cardiac surgery in the department of clinical surgery at Edinburgh University. There he became particularly active in the new techniques of cardiac surgery in neonates and infants. In 1975 he was appointed to the first Chair of Cardiac Surgery created in Glasgow. As professor in the University and honorary consultant cardiac surgeon to the Greater Glasgow Health Board he devoted himself to the organisation and development of a comprehensive adult and paediatric cardiac surgical service for the west of Scotland. While in Stanford he had pioneered the use of endomyocardial biopsy in the early diagnosis of transplant rejection. With this work and his experience in coronary artery surgery behind him, as well as his interest and expertise in paediatric cardiac surgery, he rapidly established himself as one of the leading authorities among cardiac surgeons in Britain. He was much in demand to lecture in Britain and North America. In 1974 he was awarded the European Travelling Fellowship of the British Heart Foundation and in 1978 the Ballahouston and Lister Travelling Fellowship from Glasgow University. He combined great personal charm with enormous appetite for work, whether physical or intellectual. His surgical technique was admired by all those fortunate enough to benefit from his tuition, and his lectures, whether to lay or professional audiences, were of the same high standard. He was a convinced and practising Christian whose kindness and understanding contributed to the welfare of his patients as well as to the establishment of a local and devoted team of colleagues. He died suddenly on 23 July, 1978, leaving his wife Margaret and a daughter and two sons.