Michael Baddeley, universally known to a wide circle of friends as 'Mick', was a consultant surgeon to the United Birmingham Hospitals. He was born at Wolstanton in Staffordshire on 20 September 1932, the elder son of a mining engineer. He was educated at Chesterfield School, Derbyshire, and the University of Birmingham, where he joined the medical school in 1950. After initially completing pre-clinical studies very successfully he was awarded a special undergraduate scholarship for an intercalated year of study under the aegis of the then Sir (later Lord) Zuckerman, as a result of which he was awarded a BSc degree with honours. He qualified in 1956 and in addition to his Birmingham degree also successfully passed the conjoint examination. After the customary six-month appointments of house surgeon and house physician respectively, he joined the RAMC and served in Britain and Cyprus as a medical officer to the Grenadier Guards. Following his discharge from the Army and further junior training posts, he was awarded a research fellowship at the University of California and spent a highly productive year working on the many problems of portal hypertension and portocaval shunts with Marshall Orloff in San Diego. Following his return to the UK, he was appointed a lecturer in surgery at Birmingham, and the contacts with F A R Stammers and A L d'Abreu, both doyens of West Midlands surgery, greatly influenced the outlook of the young Baddeley. In 1960 Baddeley married Susan Allen, a former nurse, and they had one son, Rupert, but the marriage sadly ended in divorce and he later married Joyce, also a member of the nursing profession. In 1969 Baddeley was appointed consultant surgeon to the United Birmingham Hospitals and was based at the General Hospital, which at that time had one of the largest diabetic clinics in the country. There he continued with his interest in vascular surgery and acquired particular expertise in the management of the vascular complications of diabetes. He also developed an interest in the surgical treatment of massive obesity and rapidly became a pioneer in gastroplasty. In 1978 he was awarded a Hunterian Professorship by the College and gave his lecture in Birmingham on the role and complications of gastric stapling and ileal bypass; this work achieved international recognition. Mick Baddeley was always extremely fit and a keen sportsman. He later became an able yachtsman with a great interest in off-shore racing. As a teenager he had been a junior doubles tennis champion of Derbyshire, partnering his brother, and he continued to play tennis and highly competitive squash once or twice a week throughout his career. He was a most affable man and a highly competent surgeon and it came as a great shock to his many friends when in 1990, at the age of 58 and at the top of a very successful career, he sustained a devastating cerebral haemorrhage from an inoperable congenital arterial malformation. Although he recovered, he remained severely disabled and was forced to take early retirement. He became progressively more incapacitated in the few years that remained. He died on 2 August 1997 survived by his wife and son.