Eric Baijal was born in India in 1918 and graduated in medicine in 1945 from the University of Agra. He came to England in 1950 for further training in surgery and in 1954 obtained the FRCS. He served in the British Colonial Service as a surgical specialist in Western Nigeria and Sierra Leone before returning to England where he worked as casualty and trauma surgeon at Stirling Royal Infirmary and as senior casualty officer to the accident and emergency department of Middlesbrough General Hospital. In 1963 he went to New Zealand and was the medical superintendant at Rawene Hospital and surgeon specialist to Haare Public Hospital, Taranaki. He again returned to England and took the job of an assistant surgeon in orthopaedics and trauma to the Ipswich Hospital in 1966. In 1967 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Sandwell Health Authority and held this position until his retirement three months before his death. He was also a member of the senior staff at Birmingham Accident Hospital. He was a modest man devoted to his patients. In his early thirties he had been converted to the Christian faith which gave new meaning to his life and he was a lay preacher in the gospel halls in West Bromwich. He had a loving family and it was tragic that he was not able to enjoy his well deserved retirement. He died on 5 October 1983 leaving a wife, Nan, two sons, Eric a doctor, and John an osteopath and one daughter, Rachael.