Born on 5 October 1929, Ian Campbell Bailey came from an eminent Dublin family. He was the eldest son of James Rowland Bailey, a company director, and his wife Hilda Maud née Campbell, the daughter of Ottwell Campbell, a civil servant. Educated initially at Rathgar Boy’s Preparatory School, he then attended St Andrew’s College, Dublin from 1940 to 1947. He studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin University and the Adelaide Hospital, graduating MB, BCh BAO in 1953. While there he was influenced by the work of the neurosurgeon Adams Andrew McConnell and Nigel Kinnear, the regius professor of surgery. He moved on to the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin where he gained his LM in 1954 and then travelled to England to work at the Leicester General and Royal Infirmary Hospitals the following year. After a spell in the University of Dublin’s department of anatomy from 1956 to 1957, he moved to the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) in Belfast as neurosurgical registrar and senior registrar working with Alex Taylor. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1963 and commenced work at the Guy’s/ Maudsley/ King’s College neurosurgical unit where he found the head of the unit, Murray Falconer, an inspirational teacher. From there he returned to the RVH for two years. Eventually Valentine Logue, the holder of the first university chair of neurosurgery in the UK, persuaded him to go to Uganda which, along with many other sub-Sahara countries at that time, lacked any serious neurosurgical facilities. Arriving in Kampala in 1969, he was appointed consultant neurosurgeon to Mulago Hospital and senior lecturer at Makere University. Later he wrote that he was pleased to have founded the neurosurgical unit before his work was curtailed by *the behaviour of that notorious dictator, Idi Amin*. Returning to the RVH in 1974 at the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland was, as one colleague put it, swapping one front line for another and he rapidly became very experienced in the treatment of gunshot and blast injuries to the head and spine. In Belfast he pioneered the use of titanium to repair skull fractures, a technique which became a global standard since the metal did not cause an immune reaction with tissue and protected the head from further injury. Continuing to work there until he retired in 1995 (having been head of department for five years), he published widely on his surgical experiences both in Africa and Belfast and gained a reputation for remarkable stamina in the operating theatre. He spent some time working in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia and Iraq and was also an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. A member of many professional bodies, he was on the Council of the Society of British Neurosurgeons from 1989 to 1993, a fellow of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa, and president of the Irish Neurological Society from 1989 to 1990. He retired to Boa Island in Fermanagh where he spent 20 years and became deeply involved in local life, joining the local Probus Club and the Fermanagh Knot, serving on the committee of the friends of Fermanagh County Museum and becoming a member of the vestry of the Priory Church, Killadeas. When younger he played tennis, rugby football and cricket, while in retirement he developed his lifelong interest in philately and won many medals for the displays he put on at various stamp exhibitions. On 18 June 1955 he had married Ruth Kathleen née Johnson, a former nurse at the Adelaide Hospital. He died suddenly on 2 January 2018 aged 88, during a Christmas visit to the Canary Islands. Ruth survived him together with their children, Christopher (born 11 May 1957) the Director of Northern Ireland Museums, Michael (born 28 June 1961) Director of Savannah Trails Safaris, Zambia and Caroline (8 February 1966) a marketing manager. He was also survived by his daughters-in-law Frances and Desiree, son-in-law Daniel and grandchildren, Matthew, Alice, Oscar, Freya, Oliver and Hugo.