Iain Ferguson MacLaren was born on 28 September 1927 in Edinburgh. His father, Patrick MacLaren, was a GP in a one man practice. Initially educated at the Edinburgh Academy, he won a scholarship to Fettes College in 1939. Proceeding to Edinburgh University, he qualified in medicine in 1949 and began work as a house surgeon to the distinguished surgeon Sir James Learmonth at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (ERI). The following year he was called up to do his National Service and he joined the army serving as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps. As a member of the East Lancashire Fusiliers he spent time in Egypt and Cyprus, arriving at his posting in the Suez Canal on Christmas Day 1951. Although he enjoyed army life so much he thought of staying in the forces, he eventually returned to Edinburgh in 1952 and resumed his studies working as an anatomy demonstrator at the university. Following this, he spent a year assisting his father but felt that general practice was not for him and returned to the ERI. He passed the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) in 1955 and, the following year, while he was working as a surgical registrar at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (RHSC) in Edinburgh, his father persuaded him to have a chest x-ray which produced a diagnosis of tuberculosis. As it happened a renowned Edinburgh physician, Sir John Crofton, had recently developed what was known as the triple drug approach which was proving extremely successful and Iain made a full recovery, although it took 18 months before he was able to resume work at the RHSC. In 1959 he went back to the ERI for an eight year stint during which time he also spent a year in the USA at the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. He worked with John M. Howard, a veteran of the Korean War, who was reputedly the inspiration for the character Hawkeye Peirce in the tv series M*A*S*H. Howard by then was known to be an expert in vascular and pancreatic surgery. Appointed consultant general surgeon to the Deaconess Hospital in Edinburgh in 1967, he was there for seven years before returning to the ERI in 1974. From then until his retirement in 1992 he worked principally at the ERI, but also at the Leith and Deaconess Hospitals and he is said to have enjoyed the contrast between the formal atmosphere of the ERI and the more relaxed ethos at the other hospitals. He was an examiner for the RCSEd and their vice-president from 1983 to 1986. He travelled widely as an examiner and inspector of hospitals and as a guest lecturer, visiting Iraq, Libya, Zimbabwe, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Nepal and Myanmar, among others. As head of the professional and linguistic assessments board of the General Medical Council from 1984 to 1999, he was closely involved in checking the fitness to practice of foreign doctors wishing to work in the UK. With a lifelong enthusiasm for history he helped to organise the museum at the RCSEd and, with Ian Macintyre co-wrote *Surgeon’s lives; an anthology of college fellows over 500 years* (Edinburgh, RCSEd, 2005), which was published to mark the college’s Quincentenary celebrations. He was president of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh, the Old Fettesian Association and Edinburgh University Graduates Association. Both his parents spoke Gaelic and he was vastly knowledgeable about Celtic history and particularly about the Clan MacLaren. Chair of the Clan MacLaren Society for many years, in 1991 at the Lochearnhead Highland Games he was invested as chieftain. He was also a music lover and a great fan of the bagpipes, having been a member of the Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society since 1945. Apparently he was responsible for piping the turkey at Christmas in several local hospitals. In 1967 he married Fiona née Heptonstall who had been working in a ward next to his at the Deaconess Hospital. They had two children, Catriona and Patrick. A gregarious and sociable man, he developed Parkinson’s disease and died on 3 October 2019 aged 92, survived by his wife, children and four grandchildren.