Keith Loraine Barnes, the son of a general practitioner, was born in Blackpool and educated at Arnold School and Manchester University where he qualified in 1940. After resident appointments at Manchester Royal Infirmary he enlisted in the Royal Navy and served throughout the second world war in the Mediterranean where he took part in a number of convoys to Malta. On demobilisation he returned to Blackpool to take over the family practice from his father who was terminally ill. After his father's death he began his surgical career and eventually returned to the North Manchester Hospital Group and Manchester Royal Infirmary as a senior surgical registrar. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon and superintendent to Wrightington Hospital in 1959 where he was responsible both for general orthopaedic surgery and the treatment of the then more prevalent bone and joint tuberculosis. He was also consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Chorley and District Hospital; Fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association and a Fellow of the Manchester Medical Society. His administrative duties at Wrightington soon embraced the management of what was fast becoming an international centre for hip surgery where John Charnley, who had first been appointed to the staff in 1949, began to develop his epic work on total hip replacement in 1956. Barnes was rapidly recognised as an authority on the management of skeletal tuberculosis so that Wrightington became a referral centre from a wide area. He also developed a keen interest in medico-legal work which led to increasing demand for his services by many major insurance companies. Unfortunately, during the last ten years of his life "KLB" as he was affectionately known, developed serious health problems which required two major operations following each of which he rapidly returned to full duty. Just after his retirement from Wrightington in 1982 he underwent a further major operation, again returning to his medico-legal work which he continued until a few days before his death. Keith Barnes was a man of ready wit and good humour, a fine doctor and an excellent diagnostician who enjoyed very good relationships with his patients and colleagues. He and his wife, Sheila, provided much hospitality for the many visitors and foreign residents at Wrightington, and she was a great support to him during his several illnesses. When he died, aged 67, on 1 April 1984 he was survived by his wife and their daughter, Patsy.