Roland Barnes was the first professor of orthopaedic surgery at Glasgow University. He was born in Accrington, Lancashire, on 21 May 1907. His father, Benjamin, was a master baker. His mother was Mary Anne, née Bridge. He was educated at Accrington Grammar School and Manchester University, where he won prizes in medicine and clinical surgery. After resident posts at Manchester Royal Infirmary, he was appointed resident surgical officer in 1935, where he worked closely with Harry Platt, who influenced his choice of a career in orthopaedics. Platt arranged for him to visit the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled in New York, under Philip Wilson. On his return he became Platt's chief assistant. On the outbreak of the second world war, he set up a large orthopaedic unit at Warrington. In 1942 he was invited to Glasgow to be the Frederick Young lecturer in orthopaedic surgery, a post attached to the department of general surgery led by Sir Charles Illingworth, who was keen to support a separate orthopaedic specialty. Barnes was given beds at the Western Infirmary, where he taught undergraduates and treated fractures, as well as at the hutted hospital at Killearn, outside Glasgow, where he developed an elective orthopaedic unit, which soon attracted outstanding young orthopaedic surgeons. The success of his department led to his appointment in 1959 as the first professor of orthopaedic surgery at Glasgow University. Together with Mary Catto, he set up a Scottish bone tumour service and forged links with the bioengineering unit of Strathclyde University. In 1968 he was appointed the first Scottish President of the British Orthopaedic Association. His views on surgical training were ahead of his time. In 1968 he wrote, "We must see that our young surgeons are accepted into training schemes and working under guidance and stimulus of a succession of surgeons of varying interests, but with the common object of producing a man of sound judgement and reasonable technical competence who has the courage to criticise his own as well as other peoples' work." He served on the committee chaired by Frank Holdsworth that led to the introduction of schemes of higher surgical training for all the specialties. He was appointed CBE in 1970 and retired in 1972. In retirement he enjoyed music and gardening, but remained an active member of the MRC team that produced the definitive review of the surgical treatment for fractures of the neck of the femur, which was published in 1976. In 1938 he married Mary, née Mills Buckley. They had two daughters and a son (John Malcolm qv above), who became an orthopaedic surgeon, but sadly predeceased him in the last year of his life. He died on 15 November 1998.