Born 14 July 1878 at Aberdeen, the fifth son of Samuel Tawse, merchant, and Amelia Hackney, his wife. He was educated at Gordon's College, Aberdeen, at Aberdeen University, where he graduated with honours, at King's College, London, and at the London Hospital. After being house surgeon at the Throat Hospital, Golden Square, and clinical assistant at the Central London Throat Hospital and in the ear and throat department at the London Hospital, he settled in practice at Nottingham. Here he was appointed assistant surgeon to the Children's Hospital, later becoming aural surgeon, and aural surgeon to the General Hospital. He was also consulting laryngologist to the Ransom Sanatorium and to the Nottingham City and County education committees. He served on the Board of Education's committee on the causes and prevention of enlarged tonsils and adenoids. Tawse was for many years secretary of the Nottingham Medico-Chirurgical Society and its president in 1925, and did much for its development. He was a vice-president of the section of laryngology and otology at the British Medical Association's Nottingham meeting in 1926, and president of the section of oto-rhino-laryngology at the Aberdeen meeting in 1939. He married on 21 April 1914 Gertrude Mary Goodall, who died in February 1939, leaving a son and a daughter. The son held a resident surgical appointment at the Royal Masonic Hospital, London, at the time of Tawse's death. Tawse was a man of sound judgment and unflagging resolution, with kindly humour and ready speech. He enjoyed fishing and shooting on his two properties, Colquoich House on the river Don in Aberdeenshire, and Wymeswold Hall, Leicestershire, where he died on 12 November 1940. Publications: Acute senile tubercular disease of the left middle-ear and mastoid. *J Laryng* 1929, 44, 255. Streptococcal otitic meningitis. *Ibid* 1931, 46, 481. Acute streptococcal ulceration of the epiglottis. *Ibid* 1932, 47, 762.