John Drew Hamer was a vascular surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. He was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, on 2 November 1936. His father, John Llewellyn Hamer, was a headmaster, while his mother, Mabel Irene née Hawkins, was a nurse. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Nuneaton, and went on to Birmingham University, where he gained a BSc in anatomy before studying medicine. He qualified in 1960 and was a house surgeon to the surgical unit and house physician at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, and then went into general practice in Staffordshire. He soon changed course and decided to specialise in surgery. He was a registrar in orthopaedics and trauma at the Good Hope General Hospital, Sutton Coldfield, and then a registrar in trauma and general surgery to the United Birmingham Hospitals. In 1968 he became a resident surgical officer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. A year later, he was appointed as a lecturer in surgery at the University of Birmingham. In 1972 he became a senior lecturer in surgery and, in 1975, a consultant surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. His main area of expertise was in vascular surgery, particularly that of the carotid artery. He had many outside interests. From his schooldays he had been keen on making model cars and aeroplanes, later he made furniture, including a font cover and church gates for his church in Oddingley. He built his own boat and was a keen sailor, and was interested in classical music, playing the organ for his church, and singing in the University Choral Society. As a schoolboy he had been an able sprinter, becoming the Warwickshire and Midlands Counties 100 yards champion. He married Angela Rosemary née Buckley in 1960. She became a GP and then a medical officer at the University of Birmingham. They had two children. Their son, Andrew Jonathan Hamer, is an orthopaedic surgeon, while their daughter, Katherine Ann, is a radiographer. John Hamer died after a short illness on 1 September 2005.