NOTED Herefordshire doctor and surgeon, William Ainslie left his mark on the city where he practiced in the early 20th century.

Decades after his death, Mr Ainslie’s grandson, also William Ainslie, has returned to the county in hopes of tracing the steps of his grandfather’s illustrious career.

The Victorian doctor and surgeon set up a practice at Wargrave House in Hereford in the 1920s, and his name was given to a hospital ward and a street in the city.

The surgeon’s son, the late Derek Ainslie, who was born in 1919, became a noted ophthalmologist and pioneer in corrective eye surgery, while his daughter, an adventuring light aircraft pilot was tragically killed after flying her plane to Africa.

For a number of years from the late 1800s onwards William Ainslie, a fellow of Edinburgh College, was a GP at Kington and his grandson hopes to trace where he based his surgery.

Derek went to Hereford Cathedral School before going to Sherborne, and after Cambridge he joined the team at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, a world-class centre of excellence.

However, he maintained a love for his native county, and loved to bring young William and the rest of the family on holidays to the area.

William and his wife, Pamela, who run a holiday enterprise on the Isle of Wight, have been visiting the family’s old haunts. William fondly remembering fishing for trout in the River Arrow at Lyonshall with his father.

The couple have been in the border country with an idea to incorporate sections of Offa’s Dyke in this area into their walking itineraries.

Anyone who can help Mr Ainslie find out more about his forebears’ associations with Hereford and the rest of the county can call 07557 388133.