Ashley Skeffington Daly was born on 12 July 1882, his father being an MD in practice in Hackney. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors School and the London Hospital and qualified MRCS, LRCP in 1905. He obtained the DA England in 1935 and was one of the first to practise anaesthetics as a speciality. Appointments followed as senior casualty anaesthetist to the London Hospital, to the Royal Marine Hospital and casualty anaesthetist to the Army in the second world war with the rank of Brigadier. He was President of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1944 he obtained the FRCS and the FFARCS in 1948. He published many articles on anaesthesia and wrote *The house surgeon's vade mecum* and *The manual of war surgery*. Daly married Maude, née James, and they had a son and a daughter. He moved to Devon on his retirement and died there on 15 September 1977 aged 95 years.