David Moffat was a consultant neuro-otologist/skull base surgeon of international acclaim. He ran an outstanding department at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge from 1981 until he retired in 2012. He was born on 27 June 1947 in Cardiff, Wales of Celtic stock; his father, Graham Moffat, was Scottish and his mother, Myra Moffat née Paul, was Welsh. This dual allegiance caused him considerable anguish during the Six Nations Championship, but the eventual purchase of a Moffat tartan kilt and full regalia seemed to indicate resolution of his crisis of national identity. After the war his parents ran a sweet shop in Glasgow and moved south when David was seven. Graham became a business manager with Nestlé and Myra became secretary to the headmaster of Harrow School. David went to St Nicholas Grammar in Northwood and by the age of 12 had decided he wanted to be a doctor. He studied medicine at the London Hospital, picking up a first-class BSc degree in biochemistry before qualifying with his MB BS. His initial inclination was to specialise in general surgery, but his interest changed to otolaryngology under the influence of Andrew Morrison, who in the 1970's was the leading otologist in the country and who, with his neurosurgical colleague Tom King, established the concept of team working in the management of acoustic neuroma. He qualified FRCS (otolaryngology) in 1975. David and his two fellow trainees in the ENT department at the London, Bill Gibson and Richard Ramsden, became absorbed in inner ear physiology and pathology, and produced a constant stream of research papers, mostly on cochlear electrophysiology. David’s lifelong interest in Ménière’s disease stemmed from that time, and during his career he contributed important publications on the subject. He was appointed to Addenbrooke’s and quickly established a neuro-otology team approach following the London Hospital model. Together with his neurosurgical colleagues David Hardy and Robert Macfarlane, he built up one of the most important acoustic neuroma series in the world and published and lectured extensively on the subject, and on other skull base conditions. His radical approach to the deadly carcinoma of the ear produced survival figures without equal. He also studied the pathogenesis of cholesteatoma and its management, and contributed to the literature in this field. He was a popular international guest speaker and was meticulous in the presentation of his extensive material. Before the days of PowerPoint, he could often be seen and heard clanking through airports laden down with carousels of slides. He had a particular love of America, having spent six months as a trainee with Mansfield Smith in Stanford. He was a frequent visitor to the States and one of his proudest moments was the award of the House-Hitselberger lifetime achievement award in recognition of his contribution to acoustic neuroma and skull base surgery. He enjoyed teaching and was good at it. Of the many courses he regularly contributed to, the Nijmegen ear surgery course, was the one he enjoyed most for the combination of science, surgery, camaraderie and good humoured banter. Nijmegen’s Radboud University awarded him a PhD for his thesis on lateral skull base surgery. His work with the International Federation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies was recognised with their gold award. In the UK, he received every honour and every medal the specialty can award. He served the specialty assiduously; at the Royal College of Surgeons, where he was a Hunterian Professor, for the specialty advisory committee and ENTUK, as master of the British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology, for the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians of Glasgow, where he was an examiner, and the Royal Society of Medicine, where he was president of the section of otology and an honorary life member, and for numerous other local and national committees. By all accounts he was a shy boy lacking in confidence. He soon changed. He became an engaging, outgoing adult, with a sense of humour that was spontaneous, never unkind and often directed at what he perceived to be own shortcomings, of which the most often aired was his obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This was most frequently manifest in the time he devoted to his golf and his skiing. He was a member of many golf clubs – his handicap came down to five – but like all OCD sufferers he was never happy. His skiing was a mid-life passion and his initial fear was kept at bay by cocktails of gluhwein and valium surreptitiously slipped into his morning coffee by his devoted wife Jane. The base for his alpine activities was his chalet in Méribel. The other targets of his obsession were his fast cars, of which his Ferrari – his ‘Italian Mistress’ – was his favourite, and fine wine, which he loved to share with his many friends. He married Jane Warwick in 1973, and she was the centre of his life. Their three children, Simon, Claire and Mark, produced seven grandchildren and he adored them all, a feeling that was reciprocated. David died on 18 March 2020 at the age of 72. He had just recovered from a year’s treatment for carcinoma of the prostate and had been given the all-clear, when he was diagnosed with a second primary, adenocarcinoma of the lung with metastatic spread.