Lyall Robertson McLaren was born on 15 June 1917 and educated at Epsom College, Downing College, Cambridge, and Guy's Hospital. After qualifying in 1941 he served for four years as a Surgeon-Lieutenant in the RNVR, including three years at sea in the East Indies. He returned to junior surgical appointments at Guy's and was then surgical registrar at Orpington and Chelmsford. After completing the FRCS in 1950 he was appointed as chief assistant in general surgery to Thomas Moore at the Withington Hospital, Manchester. Having decided to specialise in plastic surgery he became registrar and then senior registrar in the plastic unit at Wythenshawe Hospital. He was then appointed consultant at Wythenshawe Hospital, the Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute, the Duchess of York Hospital and the Bolton Royal Infirmary. He was the first recipient of the Kay Kilner Prize of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons in 1962 and was a founder member of the WHO study group on melanoma. He was a highly respected member of the plastic surgery regional unit at Wythenshawe and later at Withington Hospital, and he took a special interest in the treatment of melanoma and head and neck malignancies. He died, aged 63, on 27 November 1980, and was survived by his wife, Doris née Williams, and daughters Angela and Heather. **This is an amended version of the original obituary which was printed in volume 6 of Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows. Please contact the library if you would like more information lives@rcseng.ac.uk**