Leslie Le Quesne was professor of surgery at the Middlesex Hospital, London. He was born in Ashburton, Devon, on 24 August 1919. His father, Charles Thomas Le Quesne, was a prominent barrister, originally from Jersey; his mother, Florence Elizabeth Eileen Pearce Gould, was the granddaughter of Sir Alfred Pearce Gould, a senior surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital. Two of his maternal uncles were also surgeons. Leslie was educated at Rugby and Exeter College, Oxford. He was passionate about the Navy and, once war was declared in 1939, was determined to join, however, he was rejected on account of his poor eyesight. This defect caused problems with his future career: he was required to wear special glasses, a point noted with humour by the Middlesex Medical School students at their annual Christmas concerts. The defect was later corrected by a successful corneal graft. Le Quesne held junior appointments in Harrow, at the Middlesex, Southend and at St Mark's Hospital, London, and obtained his FRCS in 1947. Back at the Middlesex Hospital, he was first an assistant surgeon on the surgical unit to David Patey and later chief assistant. He remained under Patey's guidance until the senior surgeon retired in 1964 and Le Quesne was appointed to the chair of surgery. Patey had the unique ability of providing entertaining surgical teaching, such that there was a full lecture every Friday afternoon at 4pm, with a mixture of shrewd humour and serious lessons taught over the hour. Le Quesne, with a slightly different style, retained this form of teaching until the end of his career. Le Quesne, both during his training and as an assistant on the surgical unit, found that surgeons too often declared operations to have been a success from a technical point of view, only to find that the patient died. Determined to address this contradiction, he decided to investigate what other factors might be affecting survival after surgery. Nutritional status, for example, had not been addressed and fluid balance had not been investigated. Under Le Quesne's leadership, a new generation of surgeons focused on the physiological parameters which influence the outcome of surgical procedures. With the help of J D N Nabarro, a physician recently appointed from University College London, the physiology of surgery was investigated, resulting in a steady reduction of operative mortality, especially in those patients presenting with fluid deficiency and in diabetics. Much of this work was presented at the Surgical Research Society, a society founded by Patey and strongly supported by Le Quesne. Trainees were encouraged to undertake surgical research, presenting the work in 10 minute presentations: the quality of the research and its presentation played no small part in the success or failure of a surgical career. This approach effectively transformed the surgical approach to the science of surgery. Le Quesne's contributions as professor were considerable, not only in his own field of surgery, but also in the wider national sphere. In particular, the standard of surgical care improved with an emphasis on fluid and electrolyte balance, early mobilisation and the use of graded compression stockings following surgery to eliminate deep vein thrombosis. He persuaded his colleagues to reduce their bed requirements by encouraging shorter stays in hospital, so making space for a whole ward to be given over to intensive care, with a full-time specialist and adequate junior staff for 24 hour, seven day-a-week cover. As he became established, he joined the board of the *British Journal of Surgery* and was later appointed chairman, during which tenure he encouraged the development of a more professional approach. Soon the number of citations to articles published in the journal became important, and the editor was required to be much more careful about the quality of the papers accepted. Similar wisdom and emphasis on improving surgical standards was apparent when he became chairman of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons. He was elected to the honorary fellowships of the American College of Surgeons and Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was appointed dean of the faculty of medicine at London University and deputy vice chancellor, the first time a professor of surgery had held this post. Following his retirement from the Middlesex in 1984, he was appointed as medical awards administrator of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. Beyond surgery, Le Quesne was fascinated by the life of Admiral Lord Nelson, amassing a collection of Nelson portraits painted on glass (later the subject of a book) and lecturing widely on the surgical aspects of the wounds that led to Nelson's death at Trafalgar. Le Quesne had a successful marriage to Pamela 'Paddy' Fullerton, a consultant neurologist at the Middlesex. Predeceased by his wife, Le Quesne died on 5 August 2011, aged 91, and was survived by their two sons, Thomas and William, and five grandchildren.