Dermot Dubrelle Morrah was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, on 26 October 1943, the second child and only son of Francis Dubrelle Morrah, a farmer, and Sheila Catherine née Douglas, the daughter of a banker. He attended primary and middle school in Invercargill and then, after winning a junior Somes scholarship, was educated at Christ's College in Christchurch. He studied science at Canterbury University and then went on to Otago University. He was a final year student at Christchurch Hospital and then held house surgeon and then registrar posts with the North Canterbury Hospital Board. In 1971 he travelled to the UK, as the ship's captain on the SS Imperial Star. From 1972 to 1973 he was a surgical registrar at Peterborough, where he carried out general, genito-urinary and vascular work. From March 1973 he attended the St Thomas's Hospital fellowship course, and subsequently passed the FRCS. He returned to New Zealand, as a senior registrar to the North Canterbury Hospital Board. In 1974 he gained his fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was employed as an acting lecturer and research fellow in the department of surgery, Otago Medical School until October 1977, when he moved north to join the staff of the Whangarei Hospital, North Island, as a full-time general surgeon. In 1978 he took up the post of supervisor for the surgical training of registrars and subsequently established a successful private practice with particular interests in endoscopy, breast surgery and cutaneaous malignancy. He was a talented organist and pianist, interested in travel and New Zealand philately. He died on 25 May 2003 and is survived by his wife Diana, whom he married in 1976, and sons David and Michael.