Alastair Cassie was a consultant surgeon to the Burnley Health District. Earlier posts had been as senior registrar in surgery to the Manchester Royal Infirmary and surgical tutor at Manchester University. In 1956 he passed the fellowship of the Edinburgh college and the FRCS two years later. He contributed a chapter entitled "Suture material and the healing of surgical wounds" to *Operative surgery and management* 1981 and published an article on "Alcohol and road accidents" (*BMJ* 1961) and on "Catgut and polyglycolic acid" (*Ann RCS* 1977). He died in Edinburgh on 17 July 2010, survived by his wife, Sheila, children and grandchildren.