Born 16 August 1916 in Montrose, Scotland, the son of a general practitioner and his wife Annie (Mackenzie), Douglas Milne was educated at Montrose Academy and the University of Aberdeen. He served as Captain with the RAMC in the second world war from 1941 and saw active service in the Middle East (No 4 General Hospital, Quassassim). After demobilization in 1947 he trained in thoracic surgery in Aberdeen and then joined Ronald Belsey at Frenchay Hospital Bristol as senior registrar, becoming consultant thoracic surgeon in 1952. He was technically skilled in the surgery of benign and malignant oesophageal strictures and in the management of chest wall deformities, preferring clinical work to academic activity. He had particular interest outside hospital work being a senior member of the St John Ambulance, and created a Knight of the Order of St John, and besides, was a director and sometime chairman of Bristol Rovers Football Club, also a keen golfer and fisherman, competent violinist and composer of light verse. In 1945 in the Middle East he met and married Margaret, a nursing sister in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Nursing Service. They had one son and two daughters - a happy family. He died 14 January 1982 after a short illness which developed while he was serving, by invitation, an extra year at Frenchay Hospital, just after his official retirement.