Peter McRorie Higgins was a consultant urologist in Stoke-on-Trent. He was born on 21 September 1930, the son of Henry Francis Higgins, a retail pharmacist, and Eileen Johnstone Higgins née Morris. His grandfathers were a railwayman and a steel worker. He gained a scholarship to King Edward VII Grammar School in Sheffield, and then went on to study medicine at Balliol College, Oxford and the London Hospital Medical School, the first member of his family to attend university. He qualified in 1955. He held house posts at the London Hospital and then carried out his National Service in the RAF, stationed at RAF St Athan in Wales and RAF Halton. He was subsequently posted to Christmas Island in the Pacific at the end of Operation Grapple, the UK nuclear bomb testing programme. He returned to the London Hospital to train in surgery. During his training he spent a period at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, where he worked under Harry Morton. He gained his FRCS in 1960. His MCh research was on post-gastrectomy bone disease, but he subsequently decided to specialise in urology and completed his training at the King George Hospital, Ilford and the Institute of Urology. In 1967 he was appointed as a consultant urologist in Stoke-on-Trent, where he worked single-handed. He was well respected by junior staff for his training skills. He had an early interest in clinical audit, employing computer aided data collection at the start of the 1970s. He pioneered the discharge from the emergency department of patients with acute retention of urine caused by prostatic hypertrophy – giving instructions on how to manage their indwelling catheters at home. Prior to this, patients had been admitted to hospital until surgery was performed a week or two later. This proved safe and soon became a universal practice. He also collaborated with the local nephrologist Geoffrey Aber, including treating idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis with steroids, rather than the open abdominal surgical technique of ureterolysis. This proved very effective and remains the standard of care. In retirement he moved to Gloucestershire and then Oxford. Always interested in history, he completed a PhD with the Open University in 2004 on 18th century prison medicine. He was a lifelong supporter of Sheffield United Football Club. In 1955 he married Pamela Deane. They had two sons, Robert and Rupert, a daughter, Charlotte, four grandchildren and one great grandchild. Predeceased by his wife in 2018, he died on 20 August 2024. He was 93.