Michael Salz was an orthopaedic surgeon in Plymouth. He was born in Breslau, Germany, the only child of an eminent lawyer. He was sent to St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1935, and the family moved to England in 1938. From Cambridge Michael went to the Middlesex Hospital for his clinical studies, and qualified with the conjoint diploma in 1940. He did his house jobs in Exeter under the auspices of Norman Capener, where he met his wife Veronica (‘Bunty’) Hall, whom he married in 1948. He then did his general surgical training in Colchester and, after passing the FRCS, returned to Exeter to continue his orthopaedic training. He was soon appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Mount Gold Orthopaedic Hospital, Plymouth, and Plymouth General Hospital, where he remained until his retirement in 1981. He was president of the Plymouth Medical Society in 1977 and a founder member of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Surgical Society, of which he was secretary for many years, well into his retirement. He was a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association and the British Society for the Surgery of the Hand, as well as an active member of the Orthopaedic Ski Club. He had a very extensive medico-legal practice in which he remained active until the last year of his life. He died on 17 June 2005, and is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter, and six grandchildren.