George Qvist was born on 13 August 1910, in London, the third son of Emil Qvist, a bookseller, and his wife Emily. After education at Quintin School he entered University College, London, for his preclinical studies and was elected Bucknill Scholar at University College Hospital. He was awarded the Hallett Prize when he took the Primary FRCS as an undergraduate in 1930. During his clinical studies at UCH he won various prizes and graduated in 1933 with the University of London Gold Medal. Following resident appointments he secured the Final FRCS one year after graduation and then became resident surgical officer at the Brompton Hospital and surgical registrar at the Royal Free Hospital until 1941. He remained in the EMS as a surgeon until 1944 when he joined the RAMC as a surgical specialist, serving as officer in charge of surgical divisions in Europe and the Middle East, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. On demobilisation he was appointed surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital, surgeon to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in 1950 and to Willesden Hospital in 1956. He was extremely active in the affairs of the Royal College of Surgeons, serving on the Court of Examiners from 1951 to 1957 and on the Council from 1967 to 1979. He was a member of the Board of Surgical Specialities, and served on the Joint Secretariat, the Finance, the Jacksonian and the Fellowship election committees, as well as various working parties of the College. His Hunterian Oration in 1979 was entitled *Some controversial aspects of John Hunter's life and work*, and he firmly destroyed the old myth about Hunter having inoculated himself with a syphilitic infection. He was active in many medical organisations, notably the Hunterian Society of London, of which he was President in 1966, Orator in 1972 and then an Honorary Fellow. As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine he had been President of the Clinical Section 1964-66 and President of the Section of Surgery 1973-74. He was an elected Fellow of University College, London and received the gold medals of the Royal College, London and of the Hunterian Society in 1979, both these awards being made in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the literature on John Hunter. George Qvist was a much larger than life character in every aspect of his work. A superb clinical teacher and a great friend of his students, occasionally tempestuous and impatient, he had an intense hatred of hypocrisy and pomposity. Detecting some blatantly suspect activities in relation to a presidential election, he spoke up with spirit and contumely and quickly brought wayward councillors to heel. He lived the last ten years of his life with guts and bravura under the shadow of a steadily progressive disease. He had been suffering from multiple myelomatosis for several years before retirement from his hospitals in 1975 though he continued to do locum work both at St Albans Hospital and the Royal Northern for several years more. He often arrived at St Albans for an early breakfast and conducted clinics, supervised operation lists and taught the junior staff with great enthusiasm. During this period he published his lavishly illustrated *Surgical diagnosis* which had an instant success with his students. At the same time he was working on his splendid book *John Hunter 1728-1793*, the page proofs of which were delivered to his home on the day of his death. As if all this had not been enough to keep him busy after official retirement from the NHS, he had also been teaching in the Royal Free Hospital anatomy department and had attended there only ten days before he died peacefully at his home in Highgate on 28 July 1981. George Qvist married Dr Frances Gardner, one of his medical colleagues and dean of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, in 1958. They had no children. She was appropriately honoured by the award of the DBE in 1975 and was herself admitted to the FRCS by election after her husband's death. In his memory Dame Frances most generously endowed the curatorship of John Hunter's museum at the College, which appointment now has the official title of Qvist Curator of the Hunterian Museum. This constitutes an appropriate joint memorial to George's devotion to the Royal College and to the founder of scientific surgery. A memorial service was held at All Souls', Langham Place, Wl, on Wednesday 7 October 1981.