Francois Darné was an eminent surgeon in Mauritius and, as a former ambassador to France, a renowned diplomat. During the war he served in the Emergency Medical Service in London and also gave lectures in anatomy at the University of Cambridge and at UCL, where he was the first Mauritian to be appointed as a registrar. In 1947, he returned to Mauritius and founded a clinic in 1953, where he practiced surgery. In 1970, two years after Mauritius became independent, he set up the Franco-Mauritian Association, under the impetus of Michel Debré, the prime minister of General de Gaulle. In 1972 he was appointed ambassador of Mauritius to France and stayed in that office until 1982. He represented Mauritius at several international conferences and was the most senior member of the Commonwealth group of ambassadors in Paris In Mauritius he was viewed as a key figure in the field of medicine and his surgical expertise commanded respect. He became the accredited doctor of Air France. In his spare time he was interested in horse racing. He was married to Denise, who died in 1997. He died in September 2003.