Donald Buchanan Brown was surgeon in charge of the wards at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. He was born on 24 June 1910 at Connel, near Oban, Scotland. His family were farmers and ministers, and he was brought up in a Gaelic-speaking household. He attended primary school at Kilmore, south of Oban, where he won the gold medal for the best pupil, and then went on to Oban High School. He became bored with school and left in his fourth year to work on the family farm, but was persuaded to return. He studied medicine at Glasgow University, although he worked on the farm during the summer holidays. He qualified MB ChB in 1934. His first appointment was with Willie Campbell at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow. He then spent six months in the special burns and septic unit of J Scoular Buchanan. From October 1935 to October 1936, he was a casualty officer at Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham, working under Ken Parsons. He gained a wealth of experience there, assisting with operations and ward rounds. He went on to a three-year appointment in the anatomy department at Glasgow University under Eric Blair. After two years he was granted leave to go to London on half pay for the three months of the primary course. He stayed for three years and gained the primary FRCS in May 1939. In August 1939, at the very beginning of the Second World War, he received his call up papers and was posted to Northern Ireland as medical officer to the 7th Battalion Highland Light Infantry Anti-Aircraft Brigade. In 1940 he was promoted to major. He was later posted to India, to a combined military hospital and was in command of an ambulance train. After the war, he returned home to Glasgow, but, despite the law stating that ex-servicemen should be re-instated to their old posts, he was not made welcome by the new professor of anatomy and was offered an unsatisfactory position. He chose to return to London and found a new job at the West Middlesex Hospital. From December 1945 to February 1947 he was a supernumerary registrar, attended the Guy's fellowship course and obtained his FRCS. About the same time, he was elected to the Glasgow fellowship. In October 1947 he was successful in obtaining a junior post at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow with J P Fleming as a 'dispensary surgeon'. He was later re-graded as a consultant, and in May 1961 was appointed as consultant in charge of the wards at the Western Infirmary, a role he had already carried out for two to three years due to the illness of a senior colleague. 'Big Donald' (he was over six feet tall and had an air of authority) had a reputation as an excellent teacher. He never mocked students for their ignorance, was kind to patients and was at his best as a bedside teacher. He wrote papers on, among other topics, diverticular disease, gallstone obstruction of the small intestine, and varicose veins and their treatment. Although he retired from the Western Infirmary in 1975, he carried out many locums in the Highlands and Islands, and in Iraq and Antigua. He was also medical officer on board *RMS Helena*, visited Ascension Island several times and rounded the Cape on some 20 voyages. A country man at heart, he enjoyed stalking and shooting, and had a reputation as a good shot. In the wilderness of Ardnamurchan he regularly felled deer at a distance of 500 yards. In 1944 he married Barbara M Dickie, whom he had met in Northern Ireland during the war. They had two sons, John and Christopher. Donald Buchanan Brown died on 29 April 2006. He was 95.