Thomas Stewart Heslop was born in South Shields, the son of a schoolmaster, on 18 March 1907. He was educated at Blackburn Grammar School and Manchester University, where he graduated with first class honours in 1931, gaining the medal in medicine. After two years in the anatomy department under Professor John Stopford, he was elected Leverhulme Scholar of the Royal College of Surgeons and spent two years working on gastric motility and secretion, at the Bernhard Baron Laboratories under Professor Charles Beattie and then at the Buckston Browne Research Farm under Sir Arthur Keith. His work earned him a Hunterian Professorship. He joined the RAMC in 1942 and served in Paiforce with the rank of Colonel as surgical adviser. He was appointed to the Salford Royal Hospital and the Royal Manchester Hospital for Children. He became an expert on the treatment of peptic ulcer. He was a skilful operator, and a good teacher, with a clear appreciation of dilemmas. He served on the regional hospital board and the Board of Governors of the United Manchester Hospitals and chaired the NW senior registrars' committee. He is remembered for his loyalty and integrity. He was a private person, who shunned the limelight. In retirement he enjoyed salmon fishing and shared his interest in gardening with his wife, Eleanor Mills, the Manchester gynaecologist, who survived him when he died on 29 January 1984, aged 76 years.