Alan Gibb: ENT surgeon with an interest in hearing loss and diseases of the ear

Alan Gibb, an internationally renowned ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgeon, has died at the age of 101. Gibb was born in Aberdeen to parents who were both GPs. His mother, Elizabeth (née Ewan), was the city’s first female GP, and there is a plaque to her memory in Aberdeen’s Chapel Street. With such a heritage, it seemed destined that Gibb should enter a career in medicine. Educated at Aberdeen Grammar School, he was the youngest of six siblings and outlived them all. Five of the siblings were in the medical profession, and two of them were GPs in Aberdeen. His two elder sisters, Margaret and Muriel, were both centenarians. Margaret was a GP who lived to 101 and Muriel, an otolaryngologist in Ayr, lived to 105.

On graduating from Aberdeen University, Gibb was first exposed to ENT medicine at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in West Africa during the second world war as a specialist ear surgeon, achieving the rank of major. On his return, he qualified for the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. …