Simeon Cyril Shaw was born in Horsham on 11 March 1893 and after early education at Reigate Grammar School entered Middlesex Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1917. He served in the Royal Navy during the first world war and after demobilisation returned to the Middlesex to work in the Bland-Sutton Institute of Pathology as assistant pathologist with a particular interest in the study of breast cancer being undertaken by Sampson Handley. He passed the FRCS in 1919 and shortly afterwards left to join a general practice in Barnstaple, combining the duties of his practice with those of honorary surgeon to the North Devon Infirmary where he was a truly general surgeon who also carried out operations in the sphere of orthopaedics, gynaecology and neurosurgery. All those operations were performed with meticulous technique and a high degree of manual dexterity. The second world war saw his return to the Royal Navy, serving mainly in the North Atlantic in the *Mauretania* which had been converted to naval use. Returning to Barnstaple after demobilisation he played an important role in the redevelopment of the hospital service in North Devon after the introduction of the National Health Service. He retired from the hospital service in 1958 and from general practice the following year, but retained his interest in the sea, sailing from Falmouth and the Helford estuary. He was also an able astronomer and had an interest in photography. He married Gladys Jones, a nurse at the Middlesex, who supported him throughout his career. Sadly she predeceased him but there were three children of the marriage. His younger son is a cardiologist in Exeter and his daughter was training as a surgeon when she married. A grandson has acquired the FRCS and is practising as a surgeon. He died on 27 March 1984 aged 91.