Gustav Siegmund ‘Gus’ Plaut was a consultant surgeon at Tooting, London. He was born on 2 September 1921 to Ellen Warburg and Theodor Plaut in Hamburg, both from eminent Jewish banking families. His father was dismissed by the Nazis, and took the post of professor of economics at Hull University, where Gus was educated at Hymers College. He went up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1940, where he obtained a double first in natural sciences, and went on to win the Price entrance scholarship to the London Hospital. He qualified with the Andrew Clarke prize in clinical medicine, and after junior posts did his National Service in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Following demobilisation he went on to do junior surgical jobs at Addenbrooke’s, the London Hospital, Chase Farm and the Gordon Hospital in London, from which he passed the Edinburgh and English fellowships and then did a series of locum posts, including one in the Anglo-Ecuadorian oil fields. He had great difficulty in finding a regular consultant post, eventually being appointed at Tooting in 1960. A most entertaining and agreeable companion, Gus was a keen Territorial and spent much of his energy in charitable work, with Rotary, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families’ Association and PROBUS. He was a keen sailor and swimmer. Always very modest, he concealed his intellect and his wealth with great urbanity. He married Ivy in 1977, who predeceased him in 1999. He died on 17 January 2006.