George Brian Rawsthorne was a consultant surgeon at Leighton Hospital, Crewe. He was born on 5 May 1937 in Liverpool, the second of the four children of Joseph Lewis Rawsthorne, a master builder, and Caroline Dorothy Ball, a physiotherapist. He was educated at Huyton Hill Preparatory School, Windermere, and Wrekin College, Shropshire, where he was captain of swimming. It was while he was doing his National Service in the RAMC as a corporal at Netley Hospital that he observed the medical staff and decided he too could do medicine. On demobilisation he studied at Birkenhead Technical College to get the necessary A levels and then applied to every medical school in the country in alphabetical order: Aberdeen was the first to accept him. There he was president of both the physiology and rowing clubs. He did his house jobs at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Woodend Hospital, Aberdeen, was a demonstrator of anatomy, and then became a senior house officer for two years. He held registrar appointments in Liverpool, finishing with a position on the professorial unit. He was seconded as a locum consultant to Leighton Hospital, Crewe, in 1973, succeeding to the substantive post at the end of the year. At Crewe he was a postgraduate clinical tutor, he set up a medical audit unit (together with his anaesthetic colleague) and was chairman of the district medical advisory committee. In 1988 he was the prime mover in establishing a private hospital in the grounds of Leighton Hospital. In 1995 he became the lead consultant of cancer services and, two years later, lead breast surgeon. He retired in 2002. He played tennis until worsening asthma meant be could no longer continue. He was a keen fly fisherman and photographer. He built his own Ford special and was a keen watercolourist. In 1966 he married Anne Margaret Mackenzie, from Tain Easter Ross. Both Anne's parents were GPs and she became a clinical assistant in psychiatry at Leighton Hospital. They had two daughters, Nicola, a teacher, and Karen, a solicitor who defended cases of medical negligence. Rawsthorne died from carcinoma of the oesophagus on 10 June 2008.