John Baily was born in Southampton on 29 June 1919, the only son of Guy Baily, an engineer, and of his wife, Kathleen Mary, née Tarrant. His father was at sea while John was a boy, so during his early years he lived with his grandparents in Glasgow. His first school was Glasgow Academy, where his family background of hard work and thorough attention to detail may have been reinforced by the Scottish educational system. He then went to Woodrough's School, Moseley, Birmingham, and on to public school at Cranleigh. From there he went to Clare College, Cambridge, to study for a medical career. His clinical training was at Guy's Hospital, London. After qualifying, during the second world war, he worked in house jobs in the Guy's sector before joining the Royal Navy in 1944 as a Surgeon-Lieutenant. There he was responsible for the health of a flotilla of mine-sweepers in home waters. After the war he decided upon a surgical career. His first appointment was as surgical registrar at the Essex County Hospital, Colchester. There he became particularly interested in orthopaedic surgery. He went on to a post as orthopaedic registrar at Ipswich, and then, for further experience, to Winford Orthopaedic Hospital, Bristol, as a house surgeon. After that he became senior orthopaedic registrar, first in Southampton and then in Bristol, where he was appointed tutor in surgery. In 1957 he was appointed consultant surgeon in orthopaedics at the General Hospital, Weston-super-Mare, and also 20 miles away in Bristol at Winford. He divided his time between the two, but always carried out his full share of the work at each until he retired in 1983. At first he worked single-handed, but even after the appointment of a colleague he still fulfilled an "on-call" commitment every other day with minimal junior staff to assist him. In spite of his busy life he found time to develop his particular interest in surgery of the knee and replacement of the joint. With other consultants in the area he developed the Bristol Knee Group. He was one of the first surgeons to realise the value of computer records, and from early days all experience of developments in the surgery of the knee was recorded in easily-accessible form. His skill as an operator and as a teacher were not only appreciated by his colleagues and friends, who all entrusted themselves and their families to him, but in wider orthopaedic circles. With other members of the South West Orthopaedic Club he often joined in meetings of the Orthopaedic Club of the West of France. All his friends throughout his life had noticed that he had a pronounced stutter, which they soon forgot. When he gave a paper at these meetings, whether in English or French, the stutter disappeared. One of his hobbies was photography, at which he was highly skilled. His papers might be illustrated by slides and colour prints which he had made in his own darkroom. He was also interested in World Orthopaedic Concern, and the service which it provided in Bulawayo. In addition to being an accomplished photographer, Baily was an oenophile and a keen sailor. While sailing out of Brixham harbour in 1970 he suffered a severe "coronary" which necessitated a stay of three weeks in Torbay Hospital. Nevertheless he returned to work for the NHS and in his popular private practice, and continued sailing. On his retirement from the NHS in 1983 he took a crew of congenial companions in his 30-foot catamaran from Plymouth to Athens. In 1945 he married Betty Longmire and they had four children, Gillian, David, Patricia and Guy (who studied medicine and later qualified from Guy's). On a wine tasting holiday with his wife in Italy and Yugoslavia he experienced severe angina. He returned to England and was treated in the coronary care unit at Bristol Royal Infirmary. He died on 8 October 1990, survived by his wife and family.