Prof Robert MH McMinn

Professor Robert Matthew Hay McMinn, who has died aged 88, was probably the foremost human anatomist of his generation, widely acclaimed as a great teacher of anatomy not only in Britain but in many countries around the world.

Known to all as Bob, he was born in Auchinleck, Ayrshire, the only child of Robert and Elsie McMinn, and moved to England as a young boy when his father took a position as a GP in Brighton.

He was educated at Brighton College (where he was a scholar) and then followed in his father's footsteps to study medicine at the University of Glasgow, graduating MB, ChB in 1947. As an undergraduate he was a keen sportsman, a member of the university hockey and athletics teams, and Scottish universities champion for 400 yards hurdles in 1944.

While at university he met his wife, Margaret Kirkwood, a fellow medical student. They married in 1948 and after house jobs in Glasgow he started his national service with the Royal Air Force, serving as a medical officer in Iraq and with No. 82 Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron in east and west Africa.

Returning to the UK in 1950 he began his anatomical career as a demonstrator in anatomy at the University of Glasgow, before moving in 1952 to Sheffield University, where in 1953 he was appointed as a lecturer.

In 1956 he gained his PhD, followed in 1958 by an MD with commendation from the University of Glasgow. In 1960 he moved to London to become reader and then titular professor of anatomy at King's College in the Strand.

In 1970 he was appointed Sir William Collins Professor of Human and Comparative Anatomy, and conservator of the Anatomical Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Prof McMinn's main areas of research were in the field of wound healing and tissue repair, and on the association between skin disease and the alimentary tract, but it is for his publications on human anatomy that he will be mainly remembered.

His Colour Atlas of Human Anatomy, first published in 1977 with Bari Logan and photographer Ralph Hutchings, took the rather staid anatomical world by storm. This was a first of its kind – no longer did students and doctors have to learn their anatomy from line drawings coloured with red arteries, blue veins and yellow nerves; now they had life-sized colour photographs of dissections of parts of real bodies, a massive leap forward in anatomical teaching.

The book rapidly became a best-seller, not only to the medical fraternity but also to artists, sculptors and others interested in the human form. The book is now in its sixth edition, with translations in over 30 languages and sales topping 4 million worldwide.

Later works along the same lines included head and neck, and foot and ankle anatomy. In recognition of his contribution to anatomical teaching, these atlases now have Prof McMinn's name incorporated in their titles.

Much of his time was spent in lecturing and teaching the next generation of doctors and in particular surgeons. He was greatly revered in this role, both on his home turf and as guest lecturer around the world. Part of his success he attributed to his habit of destroying his notes after each lecture so that next year he would have to rewrite and thus never become stale. For many years he was an examiner for trainee surgeons sitting the Primary FRCS examination, both in the UK and countries worldwide.

Prof McMinn was programme secretary and later treasurer of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and was a founder member and first secretary of The British Association of Clinical Anatomists. He was editor of later editions of Last's Anatomy Regional and Applied which remains one of the standard works for surgical trainees.

Prof McMinn and Margaret moved back to their beloved Scotland in 1995 to the village of Ardfern on the shores of Loch Craignish. Here they were active members of the community, with him playing the organ in the local kirk. As Margaret's health deteriorated he added Aga cooking to his range of accomplishments.

Shortly before their diamond wedding she suffered a catastrophic stroke and spent the next two-and-a-half years in residential care, during which time her husband faithfully visited her every day.

A year after her death, in 2011, he fell and fractured his femur and was highly amused to find a doctor at the end of his hospital bed clutching the appropriate page of the Colour Atlas. He never recovered from this setback and died shortly afterwards. He is survived by two children and two grandchildren, and will be greatly missed by family, friends and colleagues.