Norman Desmond Ashe specialised in orthopaedics and plastic surgery. He qualified from Oxford University in 1945 and passed the fellowship in 1953. He became a house surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. Moving to London he took a post at the Hammersmith Hospital and then worked in the departments of orthopaedics and plastic surgery at St Charles Hospital. He was an associate member of the British Orthopaedic Association and of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons. He served as a squadron leader in the RAFVR medical brigade. He died on 15 September 2010.