Harold Frank McGhie Bassett was born in Klang, Federated Malay States, on 4 June 1923, the son of John Harold Bassett a barrister-at-law and County Court Judge and Leila, nee McGhie. He was educated at Harrow School where he obtained an entrance exhibition before entering St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and qualifying in 1945. He served as casualty officer and thoracic house surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital before he joined the Royal Air Force to do his national service and attained the rank of Flight Lieutenant. After demobilisation he undertook registrar appointments in Aylesbury, Ipswich and the Brompton Hospital and passed the FRCS in 1954. He then served in the Newcastle Regional Chest Surgery Centre at Shotley Bridge and spent a year as senior resident in cardiovascular surgery at Toronto General Hospital before being appointed consultant cardio-thoracic surgeon to the United Manchester Hospitals. He built up a modern, first-class department with intensive care facilities and continued to work there until his retirement in 1988. He was an accomplished artist and enjoyed gardening and golf. In the past he had been an enthusiastic dinghy sailor. He married Elizabeth Chamption FFARCS in 1952 and they had one daughter and one son. After his wife's death he re-married in 1979 and is survived by his second wife Susan and the two children of his first marriage.