Born in Edinburgh on 20 July 1949, Robert (Bob) James Lownie Anderson was the son and nephew of eminent surgeons. After attending Fettes College he studied for his BSc at St Andrews University, passing in 1971 and then graduated MB, ChB from Dundee in 1974. After house jobs in Inverness for the Highland Health Board and in Dundee at Ninewells Hospital, he passed the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1980 and took up a research fellowship at the University of Manchester. The topic of his MD thesis was pancreatic secretions and disease and it was a subject he was to publish on again over the years along with problems of the biliary tract. He then worked as a registrar and senior registrar in general surgery for Bury General Hospital in Manchester before being appointed in 1991 consultant surgeon at the Southport and Ormskirk Hospital (SOH). Bob spent 20 years at the SOH and, during this time, he began increasingly to specialise in colorectal diseases, being a specialist in the developing practice of treating such disorders laparoscopically. In time he was to lead many national courses in laparoscopic surgery and was an examiner for the college both in the UK and Hong Kong. He was awarded the fellowship ad eundem in 1996. In line with his specialism, he was a lively participant in the activities of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and also the Association of Surgeons. He had a reputation as a kind and compassionate surgeon. On retirement in 2011, he was, ironically, diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Outside medicine, he enjoyed skiing, playing squash and golf, and also found time for gentler pursuits such as bird watching, playing the guitar and writing poetry. He died on 26 November 2021 aged 72, having been cared for in his own hospital. His wife Kathy, a retired theatre nurse, survived him along with their two children Colin and Ailsa.