Ian Capperauld was executive director of research and constructive surgery at Ethicon Ltd, Edinburgh, and a former major in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was born in New Cumnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 23 October 1933, and studied medicine at Glasgow University, qualifying in 1957. He was a resident in medicine and surgery at Ballochmyle Hospital, Ayrshire, a resident in obstetrics and gynaecology at Irvine, Ayrshire, and then a casualty officer in Kilmarnock. In 1959 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a regimental officer. He was a surgical and then a urological specialist at Millbank, London. He was sent to Singapore in 1962, to the British Military Hospital, as a specialist in trauma surgery. During this period he served as commanding officer of the field surgical team in Borneo and as a visiting surgical specialist in Nepal. Between 1962 and 1965, he was also an honorary lecturer in physiology at the University of Singapore Medical School. Ian completed his Army career in Germany and the UK, retiring with the rank of major. In 1966 he was appointed as a consultant civilian surgeon at the Royal Herbert Military Hospital, Woolwich. In May 1968 he joined Ethicon in Edinburgh, manufacturers of surgical products, and, from 1976, was executive director of surgical research. During a period of rapid advancement in surgical knowledge and technical change, he established and maintained professional links with surgeons around the world, in particular with the Royal Colleges in the British Isles. Ian travelled widely, teaching, inspiring and innovating. His micro-surgical courses in Edinburgh were a particular success, and he was very active in supporting courses using simulations. It was increasingly recognised that the first time a surgeon performs an unfamiliar operation, it should not be on a patient. With the advent of minimal access, laparoscopic and similar modes of surgery, he brought the support of Ethicon to these introduced techniques. Ethicon was developing many of the appropriate surgical instruments and Ian supported courses with the loan of equipment so that enthusiasts were able to gain experience on simulations before embarking on minimal access procedures on patients. He encouraged those of us who feared wholesale adoption of the techniques by surgeons who were unaware of the dangers to set up courses in the British Isles and abroad. He contributed a series of research papers, particularly on wound closure and sutures, as well as chapters in books. He was a member of the International Society of Surgery and the Biomedical Engineering Society. During his career he accumulated a number of special appointments in committees at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in science, education, development and appeals. He was awarded the Sir Arthur Keith medal of the Royal College of Surgeons of England for his contribution to surgical research and training. In the light of his commercial interests, he became a member of the Institute of Directors. Those of us who had the pleasure and privilege of working with Ian remember him with pleasure and gratitude. He was a big personality, using his attributes to bring great benefits nationally and internationally to surgeons and to Ethicon. Accompanying him on British and overseas visits was always a pleasure: he brought energy and enthusiasm to all he did. Ian Capperauld died on 18 June 2010, aged 76. He was survived by his wife Wilma and their two children.