Alan Raynor Kirby was a neurosurgeon at the Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was born in Gosforth, Northumberland on 2 April 1924, the son of Alger Raynor Kirby, a manufacturer’s agent, and Phyllis Barbara Kirby née Hodgkin. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne and then studied medicine at the University of Durham. He qualified in 1947. He trained in surgery at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, gaining his FRCS in 1957, and later in neurosurgery, at St George’s Hospital and the National Hospital, London. In 1963, he emigrated to Saskatoon. He worked in the Royal University Hospital, at first in the department of neurosurgery and later in the department of rehabilitation. He retired in 1989. Outside medicine, he was interested in music. He was an organist and choirmaster at several Anglican churches. In 1955, he married Margaret Schofield. They had three children – Judith, Jayne and Angus – and 11 grandchildren. Alan Raynor Kirby died on 11 December 2015. He was 91.