David Malcolm Joseph Burns was born on 2 November 1927 in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. His father, David, was Professor of Physiology at Durham University and his mother, Clarice Margaret Dugdale, was a biochemist. He attended Newcastle Grammar School and studied medicine at Trinity College, Cambridge, and Newcastle Medical School. For his National Service he served with the British Commonwealth Overseas Forces with the rank of captain and was mostly in Japan and Korea. He was involved in the treatment of victims of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. He qualified in 1952, becoming house physician at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Newcastle. Specializing in ophthalmology, he trained at Moorfields and the Bristol Eye Hospital and was appointed senior registrar to the Oxford Eye Hospital. He was appointed consultant eye surgeon to St Paul's Hospital and Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool, as well as lecturer in ophthalmology to Liverpool University. He received the Moorfields Prize in 1961 and became President of the North of England Ophthalmological Society in 1989. On 17 October 1953 he married Mary Frame Stavert, a state registered nurse. They had five children of whom one, Elspeth Mary, died in infancy. The others were Andrew David, an electronics engineer, Jane Clare, a qualified nurse and counselling therapist, James Malcolm, a chemical engineer and Catriona Morag, a textile designer. David Burns was a quiet, self-effacing man who was dedicated to his work. He was especially interested in diabetic retinopathy and was much appreciated as a teacher by his junior staff and affectionately respected by his colleagues and staff at all levels. He retired to Clwyd, North Wales, where he died following a short illness on 8 April 1994, survived by his wife and family.