After qualifying in 1946 Raymond Bottoms held house officer posts at Mansfield Hospital and King Edward Hospital, Chesterfield, before doing his National Service in the RAF, where he was a staff specialist at Halton from 1949 to 1951. He obtained the FRCS in 1955, was a registrar at Mayday Hospital from 1955 to 1957, and then emigrated to Australia. He became a surgical specialist at Naracoote Hospital and the Albury Base Hospital, and was honorary surgical specialist to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne from 1965 to 1973. Later he worked at the Royal Ryde Rehabilitation Hospital. He died in Kairi, Queensland, on 22 April 1991, survived by his wife, Sybil.