William Niall James Alexander Kirkpatrick – usually known as Niall – was born on 27 December 1959 in Aldershot, Hampshire. His mother, Marlise née Filippa, was from Switzerland and his father, William Arthur Kirkpatrick, was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist and colonel in the RAMC. During his boyhood the family spent time in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Germany interspersed with time in the UK, and Niall and his two younger brothers attended Wellington College. He had excelled at school both academically and in sports but the latter proved more attractive when he attended medical school at the Middlesex Hospital and he dropped out after a year as rugby had taken up much of his time. Returning to his studies, he took up dentistry at Guy’s Hospital and, in the course of his studies, came in contact with the work of the maxillofacial surgeons in Chichester Hospital. This experience inspired him and, after qualifying in dentistry in 1984, he embarked on a medical career qualifying in 1990. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1996 and commenced his training in craniofacial surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) and the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital (CWH). He also studied head and neck surgery at the Charing Cross (CCH) and Royal Marsden Hospitals (RMH) and undertook a fellowship at the Wellington Hospital in aesthetic plastic surgery. He specialised in craniofacial reconstruction for both adults and children when he was appointed a consultant plastic surgeon at the CWH and the CCH. When he moved to the RMH after five years he continued this work. He was also an honorary clinical senior lecturer at Imperial College. After his retirement from the NHS he continued to work privately as a specialist in aesthetic and reconstructive work. Known for his sensitivity towards his patients, he would always devote time to assessing their situation in case they were expecting plastic surgery to solve their psychological problems. Popular with both his colleagues and his patients, he had a reputation as an outstanding surgeon who was assiduous in his record keeping and maintained a pleasant working atmosphere by the music he played in the operating theatre and often the generous contribution of doughnuts all round. At the Royal Society of Medicine he was president of the section of plastic surgery for a year in 2007. An examiner for the college from 2011 to 2016, he was also on the council of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. In 2013 he took over the chair of the Facing the World charity which sends surgical teams to Vietnam to perform operations in children with facial deformities. Niall led teams in Hanoi and Dang, not only performing life changing surgery but also involving local practitioners and encouraging them to take on the work. He promoted the work of the charity in the media and also appeared on the programme *Botched up bodies* on Channel 5 which related to patients who had suffered from mishandled surgical procedures. His interest in sport was lifelong. Through his mother he had obtained dual Swiss nationality and the family had an apartment in Fiesch where they all enjoyed skiing, climbing and alpine walks. In London he enjoyed running and cycling. On 9 January 2022 he died, age 62, after being hit by a car while taking a Sunday morning cycle ride on a country lane in Fairstead, Essex. He was survived by his wife, Anahita, a doctor whom he had met when they were both medical students at Guy’s and sons, Guy (also a doctor), Sean (who works in finance) and Louis. His mother and two younger brothers also survived him.