Hussein Ahmed Hussein was born in Berber, Sudan, on 14 November 1904, the son of Ahmed Hussein, an army officer. His early education was at Gordon College and he then entered the Kitchener School of Medicine qualifying in 1931, having obtained a surgical prize. After early appointments he came to England for postgraduate study and passed the Diploma in Ophthalmology. After returning to Sudan he became medical director of the eye hospitals in the country working principally at the Eye Hospital, Khartoum. He was lecturer in ophthalmology at the Kitchener School of Medicine and in 1963 was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Five years later he was awarded the Doctorate in Science degree by the University of Khartoum. In 1972 he was given the order for distinguished service in medicine from the Sudan Government and in 1978 he received the State Order First Class and the Golden Medal from Khartoum Eye Hospital where a ward in the hospital has been named after him. He married Ihsan Abdel Rahman Ramadan in 1934 and there were four sons and one daughter of the marriage. After retiring from practice he was able to pursue his hobbies of reading and gardening. He died in 1987 and is survived by his wife and four of his children, his sons Fayez, Abdel Hamid and Nuru and his daughter Fayeza. None of his children took up medicine but one grandson, Dr Ahmed Hassan Fahal, MS, is a lecturer in surgery in Khartoum and another, Dr Ibrahim Hassan Fassal is studying further at Wrexham Mellor Hospital, Wales.