Kenneth Holl Macmillan was born on February 3 1891 in Lee, S.E. London, the eldest son of John W McMillan, a banker, and his wife, Florence. His younger brother became a chest physician. Always an individualist he, alone of his family, decided to change the spelling of his name from that on his diplomas - McMillan for his MRCS in 1913 and FRCS on 10 June 1920 to MacMillan in the 1930's. He was educated at Colfe's Grammar School, SE London and at St Thomas's Hospital where he won a prize in medicine. At St Thomas's he held the posts of casualty officer, house surgeon and surgical registrar. During the first world war he served as a Surgeon-Lieutenant RN from 1915 to 1919. After the war he moved to Birmingham, where he was the resident consultant surgeon at Dudley Road Hospital from 1922 to 1925. His interests turned to obstetrics and gynaecology and he was appointed consultant in those specialities to the United Birmingham Hospitals in 1925, a position he retained till his retirement in 1955. During the second world war he was also occupied as a surgeon in the EMS from 1939 to 1945. His interest in obstetrics and gynaecology had led him to become a founder member of that College before the war and he was senior surgeon to the Birmingham and Midland Hospital for Women when he retired. In 1917 he married Elizabeth Smyth, by whom he had three sons, the second of whom, I.K.R. MacMillan FRCS, became a consultant thoracic surgeon. His interests were music - particularly organ music - and travel. He had little enthusiasm for committees or medical societies and during his professional life he devoted himself to active surgery, gynaecology and obstetrics, on which subjects he published some practical papers. He died April 7 1982 in Sydney, Australia, aged 91.