Sydney Davidson, the son of a herring curer at Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, was born on 11 August, 1900. His mother was the daughter of a sea captain and he was educated at Robert Gordon's College and the University of Aberdeen. The details of his postgraduate training are not recorded but this was undertaken in London where he took the Primary and Final FRCS examinations. On returning to Aberdeen he was appointed assistant surgeon to the Royal Infirmary and to the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, where he spent the rest of his life apart from a three year secondment as surgical consultant to the county of Caithness. He became senior surgeon in charge of wards at Aberdeen in 1954 shortly before admission to the Fellowship of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons *ad eundem*. On retirement from his hospital and university senior lecturer appointments in 1965 he became founder editor of the *Aberdeen postgraduate bulletin*, a substantial quarterly publication which he managed for the next fifteen years. During the whole of this period he was active in postgraduate teaching. His hobbies were music, reading and gardening. He married in 1932 and at the time of his death on 23 March 1980 was survived by his wife, Gertrude, three daughters and one son who is in general medical practice.