Professor William (‘Bill’) Henry Reid was a plastic surgeon in the West of Scotland unit. He was president of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons in 1992 and vice president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow from 1994 to 1997. He was born in Glasgow on 30 November 1930, the son of George and Agnes Reid, attended Shawlands Academy and Glasgow High School and then studied medicine at Glasgow University, qualifying in 1955. He was first exposed to plastic surgery as a house surgeon in the professorial unit at the Western Infirmary. He became a senior registrar in plastic surgery in 1961. At that time plastic surgical beds were split across Ballochmyle, the Royal Infirmary/Canniesburn and the Western infirmary, before the custom built Canniesburn unit opened in 1967. He was appointed as a consultant in 1966 with a remit to manage the burns unit, which remained in the Royal Infirmary apart from a one-year refurbishment. He ran the burns unit single handed until near his retirement at the start of 1996. One of the important reasons for fire deaths at that time were respiratory injuries caused by smoke inhalation and he became involved in groundbreaking work on the subject, over many years, in collaboration with the anaesthetic department, particularly C J Clark and John Kinsella. Resulting papers included ‘Blood carboxyhaemoglobin and cyanide levels in fire survivors’ in *The Lancet* (1981 Jun 20;1[8234]:1332-5) and ‘Mortality probability in victims of fire trauma: revised equation to include inhalation injury’ in the *British Medical Journal* (1986 May 17;292[6531]:1303-5). Other work included use of the flexible bronchoscopy, and work on alveolar macrophage function. He also was interested in potential laser treatment of capillary malformations (port wine stains) and in 1981 discussed this with John Evans in the bioengineering department of Strathclyde University. As many of the patients were children and medical laser use was in its infancy, they first researched laser tissue interactions using tattoo removal with nanosecond pulsed (Q switch) ruby lasers as a model. This was some of the earliest work on successful laser tattoo removal. This work was followed by pulsed dye laser treatment of port wine stains using a computer-controlled scanning system developed by Strathclyde University, some of this work was published in the *British Journal of Plastic Surgery*. He opened a dedicated laser suite in Canniesburn Hospital before he retired. Along with his good friend and golfing partner, consultant radiologist Nimmo McKellar and several vascular surgeons, intra-arterial embolisation of congenital arteriovenous malformations was explored. Further collaborations with the bioengineering department resulted in burns related research including ‘A practical technique for the thermographic estimation of burn depth: a preliminary report’ (*Burns* Vol 8 [1], September 1981 pp 59-63), as well as multiple projects throughout his career looking at wound dressings, pressure and silicone gel mechanisms of action on hypertrophic and keloid scars, and artificial and cultured skin substitutes. He was awarded a personal chair in bioengineering at Strathclyde University for his extensive research collaborations. On top of his research interests he had a very busy and varied clinical workload both in clinics and theatre. Despite all his work commitments, he had a wry sense of humour and always found time for other interests. He had been a good rugby and tennis player in his youth. He was a competitive rally driver with a love of automobiles and sat on the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) helmet safety committee. He also loved golf being a member at Royal Troon. With a very early start, he could even finish a game before the 9am Saturday burns unit ward round. He died on 2 March 2025 at the age of 94 and was survived by his wife (Catherine) Hazel (née Armstrong), daughter Mhairi and son Gregor.