Simon Marinker was chief of surgery for the Algoma District Medical Group in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada. He was born in Paris on 6 April 1913, but moved with his family to London during his childhood. His brother, Marshall, who was 17 years younger, became a professor of general practice at the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals. He attended Cooper's School and then studied medicine at Middlesex Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1936 with the gold medal in surgery. Among his junior posts, he was a senior casualty officer at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, and a surgical registrar at the Connaught Hospital, London. He emigrated to Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1939. During the Second World War he served as a surgical specialist, in charge of surgery at the Dundurn Military Hospital, Saskatchewan. In 1949 he moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where he became chief of surgery at the Jubilee Hospital. He was also president of the British Columbia Surgical Society and chairman of the section of general surgery, British Columbia Medical Association. In 1963, at the age of 50, he moved to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, to help set up the Algoma Group Health Centre. He started some of the first peripheral vascular surgery in the area. He retired in 1986 after half a century as a general surgeon. He published four books in his retirement, including *Reducing the risks of surgery: safeguards, alternatives, and newer techniques* (Victoria, BC, Trafford, 2000) and *Informed consent to surgery: everything you wanted to know about your operation but were afraid to ask* (Victoria, BC, Trafford, 2000), and two works of fiction. In his spare time, he played chess, bridge, poker, tennis and table tennis, and enjoyed photography and painting. He was also a cross-country skier. He married Maureen, a former nurse from Ireland, whom he had met as a locum in Dover. They had two children, Peter and Michele. Simon Marinker died on 9 April 2007. He was 94. He was survived by his brother, two children, grandchildren (Kim, Mark, Daniel and Ishshah) and great grandson, Luke.