Alexander was born on 18 January 1902 in a family long associated with the stage, but from an early age was determined to follow a medical career. He was educated at George Watson's Academy and the University of Edinburgh, and qualified in 1925. He then held resident posts at Edinburgh, London and Leicester, before taking the Edinburgh Fellowship in 1931. Before that he obtained a scholarship to the United States and came under the influence of Harvey Cushing whose teaching dominated all young neurosurgeons at that time. In 1933 he joined the department of neurosurgery at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, becoming one of the honorary staff three years later. In 1940 he was appointed neurological surgeon to Bangour Hospital, and during the war years worked with Professor Norman Dott in the Unit which at that time served civilians and service men throughout Scotland. After seventeen years in Scotland he was appointed director of the neurosurgical unit at Bristol, a post he held until his retirement. During this period he gave the Patterson Smythe Lecture at Montreal in 1956 and the Honeyman Gillespie Lecture at Edinburgh in 1957. He was president of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons 1964-66. Alexander travelled widely and was a member of the Portuguese, Spanish and French Neurosurgical Societies, and also belonged to the Surgical Travellers Club. At Bristol Alexander was responsible for a unit which entailed a considerable amount of organisation; his work was rewarded by the opening in 1953 of a first-class twin-theatre block with air-conditioning and ancillary services including a special neuro-X-ray department. Alexander was so absorbed in his work that he had little time for outside pursuits but his chief relaxation was to be found in his garden and in entertaining his many friends at his home in Painswick. Alexander met his wife on the way back from the States and they were married shortly after the commencement of the second world war; she and their four children all survived him. He died at his home in Painswick, Gloucestershire on 8 October 1970 at the age of 68. Publications: Clinical assessment in the acute stage after head injury. *Lancet*, 1962, 1, 171-3.