Alexander James Innes was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Stirling Royal and Falkirk and District Royal infirmaries. His father, James Innes, of Fochabers in Moray, was a farmhand who enlisted in the Seaforth Highlanders at the age of 16 and rose to the rank of sergeant. His mother was Jessie Tulloch, a domestic servant. In 1912 the regiment was posted to Agra, in India, and Alexander was born en route in Folkestone on 5 April, the day the *Titanic* was sunk. At the outbreak of the First World War James Innes was sent to France, where he was killed in action in 1915 at Neuve Chapelle. Alexander and his mother returned to Nairn, near Inverness, where Alexander lived for the next 15 years, being educated at Rose’s Academy, where he was *dux* in 1929. He also learned to play the clarinet, flute and bagpipes. Assisted by a Kitchener scholarship, Alexander went to medical school in Edinburgh, where he graduated with honours in 1934. He then spent a short time as anatomy demonstrator before going to London to study for the FRCS, working first at the Royal Marsden and later at the Middlesex hospitals. Having passed the FRCS, he went to Leeds. He then volunteered for the RNVR and at the outbreak of the Second World War he was seconded to the Royal Marine Commando. His first active service was in Crete in 1941, when he worked in a forward tented hospital throughout the German airborne attack, and was evacuated to Egypt. In 1942 his unit was sent to the Maldives, where he dealt with an outbreak of typhus, and then on to Burma with Force Viper, working behind enemy lines sabotaging communications and oil depots. Having scuttled their boats, the unit made their way overland to Assam. On returning to the UK in 1943 he married his favourite theatre sister, Nora Louise Jenkinson, whom he had met in Leeds. On his demobilisation in 1946 he returned to Nairn, working as an orthopaedic registrar at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness. He then went on to Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where he worked as a senior registrar. In 1947 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Stirling Royal Infirmary and Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary, where he remained until he retired in 1977. By then he could not walk down the street without being greeted by ex-patients. A modest man with simple interests, he travelled extensively, read widely and was a brilliant conversationalist. He died in Stirling Royal Infirmay on 9 September 2005 at the age of 93, having been predeceased by his wife. He had three children.