Alexander Innes was born in Edinburgh on 6 April 1910 the eldest son of Sir Peter D Innes, CBE, then a lecturer in physics at Edinburgh University and subsequently Director of Education in the City of Birmingham, and Maybelle Annie Stewart (née Wright). He was educated at West House School and at King Edward VI Grammar School, Birmingham, where he played in the 1st XV at rugby football. After early education he went to St John's College, Cambridge, having gained a foundation scholarship. He obtained first class honours in part I of the Natural Science Tripos in 1930 and was a Wright's Prizeman. He was President of the Cambridge University Medical Society and stayed at Cambridge to take part II of the Natural Science Tripos in pathology, which he also passed with first class honours. His clinical studies were at St Bartholomew's Hospital which he entered with a senior science scholarship and during his student days won the Brackenbury Scholarship in surgery, the Walsham Prize in surgical pathology and the Matthew Duncan Prize and Gold Medal in midwifery and diseases of women. He qualified in 1934 and initially was house surgeon to Harold Wilson and Sir Geoffrey Keynes before becoming orthopaedic house surgeon to R C Elmslie and S L Higgs. He also worked under Sir Harold Gillies and Sir Archibald Mclndoe before returning to Birmingham, initially as registrar to Seymour Barling and later as resident surgeon to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. During the war years he was surgical director to the Emergency Medical Services working in Park Prewett Hospital, Basingstoke. He played a major role in the treatment of casualties from Dunkirk, for which he was awarded the MBE, and continued to work there until 1944 when the hospital received many wounded from the Normandy invasion. He later joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the surgical division of a hospital in Quetta, India, before being posted to Japan as adviser in surgery to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. Eighteen months before demobilisation he was appointed consultant surgeon to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, and consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Birmingham Children's Hospital and to the Warwickshire Orthopaedic Hospital for Children. In his early years he devoted much time to the orthopaedic problems of children and to the Midlands Spastic Association and cerebral palsy unit. He contributed a chapter in *Recent advances in cerebral palsy* edited by Ronald S Illingworth. He was a prodigious worker and in addition to his hospital commitments served as honorary secretary and later President of the Moynihan Surgical Club. He was a member of the Council and later President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, a member and past President of the West Midlands Surgical Society, a member of the Naughton Dunn Club, a Midland orthopaedic club, honorary secretary and later President of the Birmingham Medical Institute and from 1971 until shortly before his death served as Vice-President of the Medical Defence Union. He was examiner in pathology for the primary FRCS and served on the Court of Examiners for the final examination. Later in life during his years of retirement he examined for the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board. Throughout his life he was always courteous to colleagues and his tall distinguished appearance marked him as a leader in the profession. His outdoor pursuits were tennis, golf and fishing as well as a special interest in dinghy racing. In 1939 he married Margaret Mary Christopher, a Freewoman of the City of London and sister of two masters of the Worshipful Company of Salters. There were two sons and two daughters of the marriage - none of whom are in the medical profession. He died on 11 October 1986, aged 76.