Donald Brian Cater was born on 14 September 1908 in Oundle, Northampton, the second son of a Congregationalist minister, Frederick Ives Cater, and his wife Emmeline (née Rayner). He was educated at Kathaleen Lady Berkley's Grammar School, Wotton-under-Edge and Caterham School, Surrey, before proceeding to Queen's College, Cambridge as a foundation scholar. He took first class honours in the natural science tripos parts 1 and 2 and proceeded to Charing Cross Hospital Medical School in 1929, having won an open scholarship. During his clinical years he won the Llewellyn Prize for the best all round performance in the prize examinations. He graduated MB in 1932. Junior hospital jobs at Charing Cross Hospital followed where he was greatly influenced by the teaching and example of Norman Lake. In 1933 he went to China as a missionary surgeon accompanied by his wife Constance Grove, also a Cambridge medical graduate, whom he had married the same year. He practised as a staff surgeon in Shanghai, becoming head of the surgical unit of the Lester Chinese Hospital. In 1941, at the time of Pearl Harbour, he became a civilian prisoner of the Japanese and for two years, between 1943 and 1945, was interned, becoming responsible for the public health of the largest internment camp in the Shanghai area. Returning to England after the war he became a demonstrator in pathology at the University of Cambridge soon after gaining the FRCS in 1946. From then on he changed career, leaving surgery to become a distinguished pathologist excelling in teaching and research. Over the years he held numerous research fellowships with the Cancer Research Campaign and published nearly one hundred scientific articles in leading journals, including *Nature*. His book *Basic pathology and morbid histology*, published in 1953, was illustrated by his own colour drawings and became a widely used monograph by undergraduates. He contributed many chapters in text-books. His extra-curricular interests included painting, gardening and carpentry. He was a lay preacher. Donald Cater died on 3 September 1984 and was survived by his wife, Constance, his son John Ives, a paediatrician and his three daughters, Janet, Hilary, a physiotherapist, and Margaret.