David Herbert was a plastic surgeon in Preston, Nottingham and Huntingdon. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital and qualified MB BS in 1961. He gained his FRCS in 1966. He was awarded the Arris and Gale lecture in 1978; his topic was 'The anatomical basis of facial reconstruction'. He trained in plastic surgery in the Wordsley Hospital, Birmingham, as a registrar, and was then a senior registrar in Whiston Hospital and Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool. He then went into private cosmetic surgery. In 1980 he was a founder member of the British Association of Cosmetic Surgeons. He requested the removal of his name from the medical register a few days before he was due to appear before the General Medical Council. David Charles Herbert died on 24 January 2014, aged 75.