Donald William Hugh Ruddick was a senior surgeon at Montreal General Hospital. He was born in Montreal on 23 October 1916, the son of William Wallace Ruddick, a general surgeon at Montreal General Hospital and a graduate of McGill University, and Ernesteen Angelic née Saucier. The family had a medical tradition – four generations had been doctors. He was educated at Montreal High School, went on to McGill University and then to McGill University Medical School. From 1939 to 1945 he was in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, firstly as a Private, then as a regimental medical officer to No 12 Canadian General Hospital and finally as a Captain to the Royal Canadian Anti Aircraft No 5. Following the war he spent some time in the UK. He was a demonstrator in anatomy at Cambridge University from 1945 to 1946. From 1947 to 1950 he was a house officer at St Heliers Hospital, Carshalton, Surrey. He then returned to Canada, where he was appointed to the McGill University staff and to the Montreal General Hospital. In 1973 he became a senior surgeon at Montreal General Hospital. He was President of the Lafleur Medical Reporting Society in 1969, a surgical consultant for Sun Life Assurance and an authorised medical examiner on aviation medicine for the Ministry of Transport of Canada and the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK. He was interested in sub-arctic hunting of caribou and salmon fishing, and reproducing antique French Canadian pine furniture. He married Mary Elizabeth Margaret May in 1943. They had four children – Elizabeth, Donald, Susan and William James. He died on 4 March 1997.