Born on 23 May 1905 in Bristol, Trevor Hellier Berrill was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Bristol University where he graduated MB, ChB in 1938, obtaining the Conjoint Diploma in the same year. He held resident appointments at Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Royal Northern Hospital and in 1931 he became FRCS. After three years as resident surgical officer at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital he spent a year at the Mayo Clinic and later, in 1939, he was appointed honorary surgeon to the Gulson Hospital, Coventry, and the Warneford Hospital, Leamington Spa. When the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital received a direct hit in 1941, he played a major part in organising casualty services for the city. He became honorary consultant to the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital in 1946 and he developed a special interest in paediatric surgery and was prominent in the establishment of senior registrar training in general surgery in the Coventry area in 1954. He contributed much to the planning and development of the New Walsgrave Hospital and was invited by his colleagues to perform the first operation there. He was President of the 1921 Surgical Club (1967-69) and President of the West Midlands Surgical Society in 1962. He was Chairman of the Leamington Spa division of the BMA and President of the West Midlands branch. After retirement in 1970, he worked at the surgical day unit at Gulson Hospital until 1980 and he published 'A year in the life of a surgical day unit' in the *British medical journal* in 1972. In retirement, too, he became Chairman of the Citizens' Advice Bureau in Coventry. In the early 1930s he had climbed the Matterhorn but his later years found him taking up oil painting, golf and bridge. He was held in very high regard by his juniors, one of whom wrote, 'His approach to patients was the most humane I have ever known and his operative work was not only superb but completely predictable. He always gave his best to surgery and to his many assistants.' In 1937 he married 'Paddy' Clark, his ward sister, and they settled in Coventry. He died on 26 December 1982 in his 78th year, survived by his wife, two daughters, six grandchildren and his son, who is a consultant physician.