John Bridger was a consultant general surgeon in Stafford. Born on 2 September 1926, John grew up in Enfield, north London, where his father, George Bridger, was the superintendent of parks. His mother was Violet Millicent Bridger née Lee. He gained a scholarship to Enfield Grammar School and later, for his medical education, to the London Hospital Medical School. After qualifying in 1950, he did his preregistration posts at the London Hospital, before moving into National Service for two years in Germany. He then returned to the usual round of senior house officer posts, leading to registrar. He became a fellow of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and of Edinburgh in 1961. Initially, he was interested in neurosurgery and spent two years in anatomy studies at University College Hospital, with J Z Young, before deciding to proceed into general surgery. He eventually secured a senior registrar post at the London, with the ‘promise’ of a consultant post ‘later’ – a not unusual situation in those days! An anaesthetic colleague knew another anaesthetic trainee, Donald ‘Hongi’ Eyre-Walker, who had subsequently become a consultant anaesthetist at Stafford, where a consultant surgical post had become available at Staffordshire General Infirmary. John visited the town with some apprehension about ‘the Midlands’, but a perfect July day in Staffordshire convinced him to apply. He became that consultant, taking up the post in 1966. John brought with him a valuable contribution new to the hospital – vascular surgery. The hospital buildings date from 1766 – it was one of the first in the Midlands. It was a very happy and efficient place. The Mid Staffordshire Health District had a population of 300,000, for which there were three general surgeons, who also did all the urology! There was a lot of surgery to be done and John was a great mover of work. He also became the (second) postgraduate tutor. A major challenge that John faced was the problem of a hospital system based on seven sites! More acute facilities were desperately needed, as a lot of new expertise was coming into the district. Rationalisation of these scattered facilities was a major need, in addition to expansion in a growing district. John spearheaded the struggle, against medico-political opposition, to build a new hospital and, in 1983, phase one of the Stafford District General Hospital was opened. Five of the peripheral units could then be closed. The Infirmary was downgraded to a non-acute unit until completion of the new site allowed its closure. The time needed for all this meant that he needed to resign as postgraduate tutor, although he continued to be interested in medical education. Other new projects were coming on stream. John was involved in driving fundraising for a palliative care hospice. Later, he was also able to locate funds from the Dinwoodie Trust for a major expansion of the postgraduate centre. He retired in 1991, having achieved a huge amount for hospital services in the district. He had won the admiration and respect of his colleagues in all disciplines. Later, he moved from Stafford to Cambridge, to take up his old passion for education, tutoring medical students in the anatomy department on a voluntary basis. He married Margaret Elsa Cass (née Pulham) in 1948. John Bridger died on 26 August 2016, in his 90th year, leaving three children, Jane, Dougal and William. His life and achievements were celebrated on 15 February 2017 at the postgraduate medical centre, by over 60 people who remembered him from different parts of hospital life – colleagues, nurses, theatre staff, managers, his secretary and some past patients and their relatives, one from 50 years before.