Douglas Phillips (or Dougie to those fortunate enough to be close to him) was a consultant neurosurgeon and surgeon in charge of the regional neurosurgical unit in Bristol. He was born in New Zealand on 6 May 1912 in Kumara, Westland and obtained his MB ChB in 1935. His house officer appointments were at the Auckland Hospital. He then went to the UK, where he worked as a house officer at the Golden Square Throat Nose and Ear Hospital in London and at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was awarded a diploma in otorhinolaryngology in 1938 and gained his FRCS in 1939. He spent the Second World War with the Emergency Medical Services and trained in neurosurgery under Douglas Northfield. In 1948, he arrived at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol with George Alexander, appointed as consultant neurosurgeons to set up the Southwestern Regional Neurosurgery Unit. Here Dougie spent the rest of his working life. Dougie’s career exactly spanned the years from when much neurosurgery was done by general surgeons to the advent of super-specialisation. He was indeed a true general neurosurgeon with remarkably wide knowledge and superb technical ability. Despite this generality, he had special interests. One was spinal surgery, where he successfully promoted the new anterior approach to the cervical region (‘Surgical treatment of myelopathy with cervical spondylosis.’ *J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry* 1973 Oct;36[5]:879-84). He also published on the treatment of acute subdural haematoma with craniotomy rather than burr holes (‘Acute intracranial haematoma from head injury. A study in prognosis.’ *Br J Surg* 1965 Mar;52:218-22). But perhaps his greatest academic contribution was in the field of deep brain stimulation. From 1960 to 1975 he, in cooperation with the Burden Neurological Institute, inserted multiple, multipolar gold wire needle electrodes into the cingulate and subfrontal areas of about 60 patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, 18 multipolar electrodes in each patient with remarkable if controversial success (‘Controlled multifocal frontal leucotomy for psychiatric illness.’ *J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry* 1961 Nov;24:353-60; ‘Progressive leucotomy’ *Current Psychiat Ther* 1963;3:98-113). I was very fortunate both to be taught by him and to succeed him. He married his theatre sister, Eileen Jones, in 1953 and they had two sons, John and Paul. He retired in 1977. He died after a long retirement on 6 January 2009 at the age of 96.