Martyn Webster obituary | Plastic surgery
My twin brother, Martyn Webster, who has died aged 86, was instrumental in the development of microsurgery in the UK and around the world.
In 1971 he joined the Canniesburn Regional Plastic Surgery Unit at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, one of the most respected centers for reconstructive surgery in the UK, with an international reputation as a center of excellence, and in 1976 he became a consultant and lecturer there. His clinical experience covered a wide range of reconstructive procedures including microsurgery, head and neck surgery, hand surgery and breast reconstruction.
He was a founder member of early microsurgical societies, including the Microsurgery Traveling Club (1977) and the British Microsurgical Society (1981). He developed and conducted training in microsurgery and published Free Tissue Transfer in 1986, one of the first books on the subject.
Martyn and I were born in Glasgow, sons of Sheila (nee MacLennan) and Gordon Webster. Our father and paternal grandfather were both stained glass artists. Martyn was educated at Glasgow Academy and Rugby School, and studied medicine at Glasgow University, graduating in 1963. In 1964 he married Shery Rogers, whose brothers Tony and Keith studied there with him. During his student years, Martyn also worked as a lamplighter in the Partick area of Glasgow, finding that the limited hours had no impact on his studies or social life.
After graduating he worked in pathology at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, then began his formal training as a surgeon in 1968 and joined the Canniesburn unit three years later.
He was an excellent teacher and distinguished lecturer, and his expertise was appreciated around the world. He was President of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons in 1994-95 and President of the European Association of Plastic Surgeons in 2000-01.
From the early 1990s he also worked in West Africa with ReSurge Africa, a charity focused on training local doctors in reconstructive surgery techniques, of which he was director from 2011 to 2022. He saw this as the long-term solution to medical problems in the region, rather than short-term visiting teams. He led the development of the burns unit at Korle-Bu Hospital in Accra, Ghana, and also established a similar unit in Sierra Leone. Although he retired from the NHS in 2006, he continued to work in West Africa until 2021.
Martyn was a keen sailor, owning several classic keelboats. His considerable efforts to save the Scottish islander class are documented in a 2023 book by his friend Ewan Kennedy. He advocated the pleasure of sailing rather than the stubborn determination to win, although he could also be competitive. (He was said to know every rock on the Scottish west coast, as he had hit most of them.)
Martyn’s eldest daughter, Amanda, died at the age of seven. He is survived by Shery and their three other children, Emma-Jo, Toby and Timothy, seven grandchildren and myself.
