James Jeffrey Maccabe

James Jeffrey Maccabe (“Jeffrey”), born on 19 December 1928 in Edinburgh, has died at the age of 94. Brought up in Edinburgh and educated at George Heriot’s School, amid stiff competition because of places reserved for service personnel returning from the second world war, he obtained a place to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1946 at the age of 17. He met and was befriended by Norman Dott, a neurosurgical pioneer, later the first professor of neurosurgery in Scotland. On qualifying Jeffrey gravitated to neurosurgery. As was customary then, he first studied for a general fellowship in surgery and was awarded fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1961. He returned to neurosurgery in …