Thomas Crawford Barras came of a distinguished Glasgow medical family. His father, William Barras, was President of the Scottish Society of Anaesthetists at the time of his death in a motoring accident in 1928, and his grandfather Thomas Crawford also practised as a doctor in Glasgow. Barras was born on 10 February 1921 and educated at Glasgow High School and the University of Glasgow, where he qualified MB ChB in 1944. He trained at first in general surgery, but later moved to study ophthalmology at Glasgow Western Infirmary and the Tennant Institute of Ophthalmology, Glasgow. He worked at the Glasgow Eye Infirmary and the Southampton Eye Hospital and was senior lecturer in the Department of Clinical Ophthalmology, Institute of Ophthalmology, London. He joined the Merchant Navy as a surgeon in 1945 and was a surgeon in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve from 1946 to 1950, in which year he transferred to the Royal Naval Medical Service, where he attained the rank of surgeon captain. Barras was a rugby player of distinction, and played for the United Services and Hampshire, of which he was captain; he also had trials for Scotland. He died in June 1996, survived by his wife, Jean Mhairi, née Harper, whom he had married in 1955, and a son, Mr C W Barras, FRCS.