Mihir Kumar Senapati was a medical officer in Nigeria. He was born on 30 December 1925, the second son of Nilamani Senapati, an administrator in the Indian Civil Service, and Indumati Senapati née Niyogi. He was educated at the Doon School in Dehradun, Uttar Pradesh, India, where he gained the school high jump record and was presented with a copy of *Grey's anatomy* in recognition of his academic achievements. He went on to study medicine at Patna University, where he gained honours in physiology and pathology, and was captain of sports. He qualified with the MB BS in 1948. He was a house surgeon at the Prince of Wales Medical College Hospital in Patna and the Orissa Medical College Hospital, Cuttack. He then went to the UK, where he was a house surgeon and casualty officer at Hammersmith Hospital and the Postgraduate Medical School of London. He was subsequently a surgical registrar for the Canterbury and Thanet Hospital Group. In 1957, he gained his fellowships of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and of Edinburgh. In the late 1950s, he went to the northern region of Nigeria as medical officer for the Overseas Civil Service. After independence in 1960, he stayed on and worked for the Ministry of Health in Jos and then Kaduna. He became a fellow of the West African College of Surgeons in 1975. His last known address was in Haslemere, Surrey. Outside medicine he enjoyed rough shooting and bridge, motor mechanics and the maintenance of surgical equipment. In 1952, he married a Miss Iyer, who became a GP. They had a daughter, who also became a doctor, and a son. Mihir Kumar Senapati died in 2005.