Charles Mann was a consultant surgeon at St Mark's and the London hospitals. He was born in Hampton, Middlesex, on 2 March 1928, the son of Charles Mann, a company director in the City of London, and Hilda Ella Mann née Bramley. At one stage there were 11 doctors in his immediate family, including two professors. His early schooling was disrupted due to the Second World War. He was educated at St Paul's School, King's College School, Beaumont College and was subsequently privately tutored in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire, his father's family's home. He then studied at New College, Oxford University, and St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, qualifying BM BCh in 1951. He held junior posts at St Thomas' Hospital and, from 1952 to 1953, he was a senior lecturer in the department of anatomy at Gordon University College, Khartoum. He then served for two years in the RAF for his National Service as an acting squadron leader and surgeon attached to No 6 RAF Hospital, Habbaniyah, Iraq. Once he returned to the UK, he was a registrar at St Thomas' Hospital and, from 1961 to 1963, a research assistant to C F Code at the Mayo Clinic, USA. He was subsequently appointed as a consultant surgeon at St Mark's Hospital and then to the London Hospital, Whitechapel. At St Mark's he was also dean of postgraduate studies. He was chairman of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons. He also a surgical tutor and examiner in surgery for the University of London, an examiner and chairman of the court, Society of Apothecaries, and for the Conjoint Board. He was president of the section of coloproctology at the Royal Society of Medicine and a founder member of the European Society of Coloproctology. He was a fellow of the British Society of Gastroenterology. He wrote more than 100 papers in refereed journals, mainly on colorectal topics. He was senior international editor of the journal *Coloproctology* and an editor of *Bailey and Love's Short practice of surgery*. He wrote and edited several books, including *Alimentary sphincters and their disorders* (London, Macmillan, 1981) and *Surgical treatment of anal incontinence* (Springer-Verlag, 1991). Outside medicine, he was interested in sport. At medical school he admitted to being more interested in playing rugby than scholastic achievement: he was a member of the team which won the Hospitals' Cup. In the RAF he was captain of the Levant Command rugby team. In July 1958 he married Maria Regina (née Mackay), a consultant anaesthetist at St Helier Hospital, Carshalton. They had two daughters and a son. Charles Mann died on 30 August 2013. He was 85.