Douglas (Dougal) Caird was born on 21 April 1921 in Dundee. He was educated at the University of St Andrew's. He served in the RAMC in Palestine and North Africa from 1947 to 1948 during National Service. He held training posts in Mansfield, Sheffield and Dundee and was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Middlesbrough in 1960. His clinical competence in the orthopaedic and accident service in Teeside was extended into hand surgery and he established the North East Hand Club. He also organised in 1968 a comprehensive myelomeningocele service. A quick wit and a dry sense of humour came with a short, sharp delivery combined with a speed of movement that extended to his excellent operative technique. It was said of him that 'large clinics melted before him, punctuated by staccato sounds to be interpreted by his faithful followers'. As a young man in the Scottish highlands he stalked deer and caught trout; later he became a tireless salmon fisher. His many friends enjoyed a liberal hospitality, which was dispensed with equal enthusiasm by his wife, Mary, who survived him along with their son and daughter when he died on 10 January 1991.