Irvine Roger Stillman was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on 29 September 1915 and after early education went to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, graduating with a BA degree and later proceeding to MA. His clinical studies were undertaken at Oxford University and the Radcliffe Infirmary and he qualified in 1943. After early house appointments in general surgery and orthopaedics he was appointed resident surgical officer at Chesterfield and passed the FRCS in 1957. He later became senior hospital medical officer to the casualty department of Chesterfield Royal Hospital and played an important role in the design of a new accident and emergency department at the hospital. Shortly after the new department was opened he was promoted consultant and was a founder member of the Casualty Surgeons' Association. He was one of the first to recognise the importance of immediate treatment of road accident victims and having visited Heidelberg to study their methods founded the "Flying Squad", established in 1978, at Chesterfield to take a team of doctors and nurses to road-side victims. He had a keen interest in photography, and was instrumental in spearheading the development of clinical photography at the hospital. He retired in 1981 and his contribution to the town where he had spent most of his working life was recognised by the award of the honorary freedom of the Borough of Chesterfield in 1983. In 1947 he married Kay Walton, a nursing sister, and their daughter has qualified in medicine. He died in 1987 aged 72.