Patrick Boulter, or ‘Paddy’ as he was affectionately known, was a consultant surgeon to the Royal Surrey County Hospital and the Regional Oncology Centre, Guildford, Surrey. He was elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and served from 1991 to 1994. He was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire, on 28 May 1927, the second child of Frederick Charles Boulter, a civil engineer, and his wife, Flora Victoria (née Black). The Boulters later moved to Wimbledon, where Paddy went to King’s School for his early education. The family then went north to Carlisle. His schooling continued at Carlisle Grammar School, where he developed his love of hill-walking and climbing, which was to become a life-long passion. He enjoyed cycling and on one occasion cajoled some friends to cycle from Carlisle to Coniston to climb ‘Coniston Old Man’. In school holidays he worked on Glasgow boats supplying the Highlands and Islands. Although appreciating the beauty of the Western Isles, he developed an aversion to kippers. In his final year at school Paddy decided to study medicine, having previously concentrated on the arts and classics. He entered Guy’s Hospital Medical School to study for the first MB examination, following his sister Joy, who trained as a nurse at Guy’s. Although brilliant at chemistry and physics, he failed botany (although he was later to become knowledgeable on alpine flowers). He decided to enter the RAMC for National Service, where he worked as an operating department technician. While in London he met and fell in love with Mary (Patricia Mary Eckersley) Barlow, a student. They married in 1946 while he was doing his National Service. In due course their two daughters were born in Carlisle. Jennifer (‘Jenny’) became a nurse and Anne, a physiotherapist. After demobilisation, he passed the first MB. While waiting to re-enter Guy’s Hospital to complete his medical education, he took a job at the Cumberland Royal Infirmary and worked with consultant surgeon Bill McKechnie, who had a profound effect on his future career. The two became life-long friends and shared a love of climbing and hill-walking. Paddy had a distinguished academic career at Guy’s Hospital Medical School, winning prizes in anatomy, pathology and clinical surgery, and graduating in 1955 with honours, a university gold medal and the Handcock prize from the Royal College of Surgeons of England. After house appointments at Guy’s Hospital, he became a lecturer in anatomy to Guy’s Hospital Medical School. Surgical training progressed as a registrar at the Middlesex Hospital, where he was greatly influenced by David Patey, and returned to Guy’s as a senior registrar to Sam Wass and Sir Hedley Atkins. He was appointed to the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford, in 1962, where he was a general surgeon with endocrine and breast interests. Later he was appointed as an honorary professor in surgical science at the University of Surrey at Guildford. He enjoyed private practice at Mount Alvernia Hospital, which was run by a Franciscan order of nuns. This afforded him an even closer contact with patients. He kept fit by an early morning run across the Merrow Downs accompanied by his retriever. As a well-respected breast surgeon, his unit, with that of Sir Patrick Forrest in Edinburgh, did much to develop population screening for breast cancer in the UK. His reputation as a teacher and researcher resulted in visiting professorships to surgical centres around the world. Paddy wrote many papers and chapters in books on breast, skin and endocrine disorders. He was a popular and effective trainee of young surgeons, many of whom became friends and enjoyed the generous hospitality of the Boulter home, as did many other visitors from around the world. R C Bennett, giving the oration when Paddy received his honorary fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, noted: “He is a warm-hearted, generous man, with a wonderful wife, Mary…. She has been a great companion and constant help to him in his work, as well as a friend and second mother to the many overseas trainees passing through his, or should I say ‘their’, hands.” He was an active member of many societies, including the Association of Surgeons, British Breast Group, Australia and New Zealand Breast Cancer Study Group, Surgical Research Society, Melanoma Study Group, European Association of Surgical Oncology and International Surgical Society. He was an honorary member of the North Pacific Surgical Association and of the Association of Surgeons of India and was an honorary citizen of the State of Nebraska, USA. In our College, he was a regional surgical adviser and Penrose May tutor and was largely responsible for setting up the postgraduate centre in Guildford. He was an examiner for the universities of London, Edinburgh, Queensland, Singapore, Malaya, and the Edinburgh College. He represented the Edinburgh College for 10 years as a trustee for the Thalidomide Trust. He was elected a member of the Edinburgh College council in 1984 and succeeded Geoffrey Chisholm as president in 1991. Throughout his presidency, he conducted the business of the College with great skill and quiet authority and, in his seemingly endless round of international surgical diplomacy, he was able to use his natural charm to great effect. The citation he delivered on the occasion of Mother Theresa being awarded the honorary fellowship of the Edinburgh RCS was gracious and moving – Paddy at his eloquent best. He thrived on travel, on meeting people and many of his visits produced new contacts and new overseas partners for his College. His remarkable collection of honorary fellowships attested to the highest esteem in which he was held. He and Mary shared an interest in skiing and mountaineering. Paddy was active in the Alpine Club and Swiss Alpine Club, and in their travels relished the challenge of new mountain peaks in the Himalayas and Rockies. Another shared passion was angling, which they both enjoyed in retirement, within sight of his beloved Cumbrian hills. He was a member of Yorkshire Fly Fishers’ Club and the Penrith Angling Association. Uniquely conscious of his Scottish roots, it was with great pride that he kept his father’s Scottish number plate, OSM 420, on a series of cars. When examining overseas, as the team returned at a late hour from being entertained, Paddy took great delight in leading the singing of traditional Scottish airs with gusto. He was occasionally in tune. After many happy early years in Cumbria, Paddy and Mary bought ‘Quarry Cottage’, Great Salkeld, and spent as much time as they could preparing this for their retirement, creating a lovely garden, fishing in the river Eden and hill-walking. Patrick Stewart Boulter died peacefully on 30 November, 2009 at the age of 82. A Service of Thanksgiving was held at St Cuthbert’s Church, Great Salkeld, Penrith, Cumbria. Richard Notley, a long-time friend and colleague, gave a fitting tribute. Boulter is survived by Mary, his two daughters, Jenny Bond and Anne Wood, their husbands, five grandchildren and five great grandchildren.