Roger Mawdsley was a consultant surgeon on the Wirral, Merseyside. Born in Formby, Lancashire, on 2 November 1932, his father was Edward Mawdsley and his mother, Martha Jones. He was educated at St Mary’s College, Crosby, Liverpool, and then went on to Liverpool University. He completed a BSc in anatomy, which introduced him to research. At medical school he received the William Mitchell Banks bronze medal in anatomy and shared the E B Noble prize in 1955. After house jobs in Liverpool, he returned to the department of anatomy as a demonstrator, and completed an MD thesis on environmental factors affecting the growth and development of whole-bone transplants in mice. It seemed that a future in academia was before him, but, whilst working as a house officer for Edgar Parry at Broadgreen Hospital, he had become fascinated with vascular surgery. He held registrar appointments at the thoracic unit at Broadgreen Hospital and at Liverpool Royal Infirmary. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon to Whiston Hospital, Prescot, in 1970, and as a consultant surgeon in the north and central Wirral Hospital group in 1973, where he remained until he retired in 1992. He had many interests outside medicine. He played golf and completed the Telegraph crossword every day. After a visit to South Africa, he became an expert on that country’s history and politics. When a patient gave him a lathe he set about making a sophisticated clock, every piece of which he made himself. He married Elizabeth Anne Cunningham, the daughter of L J Cunningham, a physician, in 1964, and they had three children, Elizabeth Anne, Andrew and Caroline. There are five grandchildren. A dedicated smoker, his later years were beset by increasing dyspnoea due to emphysema. He died of cancer on 13 September 2003.