Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes was one of New Zealand's foremost cardiac surgeons. He was born on 13 January 1924, the son of Gerald Cave Boyes and Edna Myrtle, née Barratt. After qualifying, he was a lecturer in anatomy at Otago, and then house surgeon and registrar at Wellington Hospital. He was subsequently surgical registrar and pathology registrar at Palmerston North Hospital, before going to the Mayo Clinic as a fellow in cardio-thoracic surgery for two years. He was then awarded a Nuffield fellowship at Bristol in 1956. He returned to New Zealand as senior cardio-thoracic surgeon at Green Lane Hospital. In 1982 he was awarded the Sims Commonwealth travelling fellowship and many honours came to him in the succeeding years: the RT Hall prize for distinguished cardiac surgery in 1966, the René Leriche prize of the Société Internationale de Chirurgie in 1987, and the award for excellence from the Australasian College in 1994, and he was depicted on a postage stamp of the famous New Zealanders series. He published *Heart disease in infancy: diagnosis and surgical treatment* in 1973 and the standard text *Cardiac Surgery* in 1986, which ran into several editions. His recreations included trout fishing and tennis. He was married twice: first to Norma Margaret Thompson, by whom he had five sons. This marriage was dissolved and he married Sara Rose Monester in 1986. See below for an additional extended obituary: Brian Barratt-Boyes was one of the most outstanding cardiac surgeons among the pioneers of open-heart surgery, gaining an international reputation from a relatively remote hospital location. He was born on 13 January 1924 in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Gerald Cave Boyes and Edna Myrtle née Barratt. He was educated at Wellington College and Victoria University, before going on to study at Otago University's Medical School. After serving as a lecturer in anatomy he became a house surgeon and then a registrar at the Wellington Hospital, from 1948 to 1950. He was then a registrar at Palmerston North Hospital, before becoming a fellow in cardiothoracic surgery at the Mayo Clinic under John Kirklin, who became a close friend. He then went to Bristol on a Nuffield travelling scholarship. In 1957 Sir Douglas Robb recruited him to return to New Zealand to set up open-heart surgery, and he became senior cardiothoracic surgeon at the Green Lane Hospital, Auckland. His first open heart operation was performed in 1958. He introduced a number of new methods, including the use of pacemakers, constructed on the spot by Sid Yarrow, an engineer on the team, at first used externally and implanted for the first time in 1961. Simultaneously, with Donald Ross in London, he introduced the use of aortic valve homografts in 1962, greatly simplifying and improving the surgical technique. In 1969 he brought into the limelight the technique of profound hypothermia with cardiac arrest for paediatric cardiac surgery, so making Green Lane Hospital an international centre for neonates with congenital heart disease. Young cardiac surgeons from all over the world came to work with him, taking back with them his system and techniques, which soon became recognised as the gold standard in this field. His *Heart disease in infancy: diagnosis and surgical treatment* (1973) became the standard text, as did the monumental *Cardiac surgery* (1985), which he wrote in collaboration with John Kirklin. He was the recipient of innumerable honours. In 1971 he was made the first honorary professor in the University of Auckland, and his work was recognised by a knighthood. In 1983 he won a Sims Commonwealth travelling fellowship and gained the René Leriche prize of the Société Internationale de Chirurghie in 1987. He turned down many lucrative offers to work overseas, pointing out that to work in a small, distant hospital (as with the Mayo Clinic) protected one from outside distractions. In all his work, Barratt-Boyes demonstrated what his admirer Christiaan Barnard called, writing in the introduction of Donna Chisholm's biography, 'single-mindedness - a clear sighted striving towards a goal and a vision'. It was ironic that he should himself suffer from serious heart disease, and underwent four operations before finally going to the Cleveland Clinic to have two valves replaced, an operation which was followed by complications from which he died on 8 March 2006. He married twice. In 1949 he married Norma Margaret Thompson, by whom he had five sons. This marriage was dissolved in 1986, and he married secondly Sara Rose Monester.