Heath Thurlow Thompson was a thoracic surgeon to the North Canterbury Hospital Board, New Zealand. He was born in London on 3 May 1920 and studied at Christ’s College, Christchurch, New Zealand. He was a house surgeon at Grey River Hospital, Greymouth, New Zealand, from 1944 to 1945, and then joined the Friends Ambulance Unit, as a surgeon in the China Convoy. He then went to the UK, where he was a house surgeon at Sully Hospital for Chest Diseases, Sully, Glamorgan, from June to December 1950. He was subsequently a resident surgical officer at Merthyr General Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil, and then a registrar at Sully Hospital, Sully, from 1951 to 1953. He returned to New Zealand, where he was a full-time thoracic surgeon to the North Canterbury Hospital Board at Princess Margaret Hospital from June 1954. He married Bernice Joyce née Alldred and they had two daughters (Kathleen Ann and Gillian Margaret) and two sons (Brian and Paul). He died on 30 August 2003.