Raleigh Barclay Lucas, Emeritus Professor of Oral Pathology, died on 11 October 2011. He was a distinguished oral pathologist and academic and for 15 years was the Dean of the Royal Dental Hospital School of Dental Surgery. He was born in Edinburgh in 1914 and educated at George Watson’s School. He read medicine at the University of Edinburgh and qualified in 1936. At the beginning of the Second World War he enrolled in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). Immediately before being posted to India he was responsible for immunising military personnel at the Radcliffe Royal Infirmary, Oxford. It was here that he vaccinated Violet, a member of the Queen Alexandra Nursing Corps, who later became his wife. He followed an unusual career pathway. During his first posting to India, he isolated an outbreak of typhus fever for which he was promoted to Major. After the war Raleigh trained in general pathology at the Middlesex Hospital. Following this he worked at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and in 1949 was encouraged to apply for a post at The Royal Dental Hospital School of Dental Surgery. He developed the department of Oral Pathology to a level of international recognition. In 1952 he was appointed as Professor of Oral Pathology. He was most well known for his textbook *Pathology of tumours of the oral tissues*, first published in 1963. This has now reached its fifth edition and is published as *Lucas’s pathology of tumours of the oral tissues* and is authored by several distinguished colleagues. Raleigh published other textbooks and authored several WHO handbooks on different aspects of oral tumours. With Alan Thackaray he produced a handbook for the US Armed Forces on pathology of tumours of the salivary glands. He continued to work up to his 86th year. He was a man of exquisite good manners who was regarded by colleagues and students as a kind and thoughtful man, always concerned for the needs of his staff. Raleigh was predeceased by his son David. He leaves Violet, his wife of over 70 years, and his daughter, Victoria.