Frank Robinson, the son of a general practitioner, was born in Bolton in 1914. There had been doctors in every generation of the family since 1800. After graduation from Manchester in 1940 he was called up for service in the RAMC, first at Aldershot and later at Baguley Emergency Medical Service Hospital. After demobilisation as a Captain he returned to Manchester to work with Wilson Hay, F H Bentley and Harry Platt. On passing the final FRCS in 1949 he returned to plastic surgery with Andrew McDowall and Randall Champion at Wythenshawe Hospital. Frank had technical ability of the highest order and was a meticulous operator of obsessional character, and with an intolerance of the second-rate. He published papers on a wide variety of topics and was best known for his work on primary bone grafting for cleft palate. His critical observation and painstaking records over the years much facilitated this work and he kept a detailed diary in which he wrote up every operation he had done at the end of each day. He was President of the Manchester Medical Society and Chairman of the Charles O'Neill Club; a Council member of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons and a founder member of the British Association of Cosmetic Surgeons, having long recognised and publicised the importance of aesthetic surgery. Apart from his lip and palate work at Booth Hall Children's Hospital, he also developed a burns unit there with Andrew McDowall and they won a scientific prize at the BMA exhibition in 1964. Additionally, in concert with his dental colleague, Barry Woods, he introduced a special ward where the mothers of cleft palate patients could stay with their babies and be taught to cope with the dental plate and feeding. Outside his strictly surgical commitment he served as chairman of the medical advisory committee and was a member of the hospital management committee. He was a loyal supporter of his hospitals so that his opinion and advice were widely sought on general medical matters. He was an excellent communicator, a rapid worker and speaker, and a forthright but fair opponent in dispute. He was fond of fast cars, an enthusiastic dancer in his youth and had a keen interest in music, teaching himself to play the electric organ in later life. His wife, Joan, was a physiotherapist and they had three daughters and two sons, all of whom survived him when he died on 13 October 1981.