Martyn Webster
Born: December 24, 1939;
Died: January 25, 2026
Martyn Webster, who has died aged 86, was a leading plastic surgeon who was chairman of the board that developed and built Scotland’s largest private hospital, Ross Hall in Glasgow.
Born Martyn H C Webster in Glasgow in 1939 , a twin son of Gordon Webster, a stained glass artist, and his wife Sheila Webster (nee MacLennan). His grandfather Alf Webster was also a stained glass artist who was killed in the First World War in 1915, and his grandmother Maude Webster (nee Cochrane).
Martyn was educated at Glasgow Academy and Rugby School, and studied medicine at Glasgow University, graduating in 1963. He supplemented his income while at university by working as a lamplighter in Glasgow, finding that the hours did not interfere with his studies or his social life. He was confirmed and later married to his wife Shery (nee Rogers) at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Glasgow.
He worked in pathology at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary for four years after graduation, and began formal surgical training in 1968.
He joined the Canniesburn Regional Plastic Surgery Unit in 1971, one of the UK’s most respected centres for reconstructive surgery, with an international reputation as a centre of excellence, and he became a consultant and senior lecturer there in 1976. His clinical experience covered a wide range of reconstructive procedures, especially microsurgery, head and neck surgery, hand surgery and breast reconstruction.
He was president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) from 1994-1995, and president of the European Association of Plastic Surgeons (EURAPS), from 2000-2001. He was the chairman of the board that developed and built Ross Hall in Glasgow in 1982, and was appointed as director of Academy Healthcare in 2005.
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Martyn was extremely influential in the development of microsurgery both in the UK and internationally. He was a founding and most dynamic member of the early microsurgical societies, The Microsurgery Travelling Club (1977), The British Microsurgical Society (1981) and a variety of international societies. He developed and directed training courses in microsugery (1977), initially in collaboration with ETHICON and subsequently with Glasgow University and published one of the earliest books on Free Tissue Transfer (1986). He was an excellent teacher, a distinguished lecturer, an enthusiastic exponent of the art of plastic surgery and his expertise was appreciated all over the world.
After retiring from full-time practice in the UK, he worked part-time in West Africa, with ReSurge Africa, a charity focussed on training local doctors in reconstructive surgical techniques, where he was highly regarded, and was the director from 2011-2022. Following on from the plastic surgeon Jack Mustarde, he led the development of the burns unit at the Korlibu Hospital in Ghana, and he also set up a similar unit in Sierra Leone.
In his spare time, he was a keen sailor, owning and sailing a number of classic keelboats, and setting up a charity to promote them. His considerable efforts to save the Milne-designed Scottish Islander Class are well documented in the book of that name by his friend Euan Kennedy. He sailed up and down the west coast of Scotland, based at the Royal Gourock Yacht Club, where he encouraged others and promoted the pleasure of sailing, rather than a single-minded determination to win, although he could be very competitive, and regularly won the Serpents Club race around the island of Shuna in Shona, the Scottish Islander he had built for himself. (It was also said that he knew every rock on the west coast, as he had hit most of them.)
He was a top surgeon, kind, generous, funny and extremely good company who will be much missed.
His eldest daughter Amanda sadly died aged seven, but he is survived by his wife, his three other children, (Emma-Jo, Toby and Timothy) and seven grandchildren.
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