Indrajit Ajaykumar Mitra was born on 1 August 1950 in the Midnapore district of the State of West Bengal. His father, Ajay Kumar Mitra, was an employee of a private company, having had to discontinue his medical studies due to meningitis. Urmimala Roy, his mother, was a College graduate who had been closely associated with the pre-Independence freedom movement. Indrajit attended the Gujarati School at Gandia, Maharashtra State, for ten years. He then did a two year pre-Medical College course at the Science College of Gardia, where he was an excellent student and was awarded a National Scholarship for higher studies. He studied for his MB BS at the Government Medical College in Nagpur and won nine gold medals, the M P ophthalmic prize and the Pfizer gold medal in surgery. His thesis on the painful heel was deemed to be the best of the year. Coming to England to study for his Fellowship he worked as an SHO at New Cross Hospital at Wolverhampton and at the Sheffield Orthopaedic Hospital, where he trained under Mr J W J Sharrard. He became an orthopaedic registrar at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, (where he was inspired by Mr J Welch, OBE) and also at Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup. He returned to India and practised at the Bellevue Hospital, Bilaspur. On 4 June 1974 in India he married Dr Shikha Mitra MD, DObst (Dublin) and she was to become a gynaecologist, also at the Bellevue Hospital. They had two daughters, Anindita (born 7 November 1978) who was studying to become an engineer, and Nivedita (born 23 December 1985), a schoolgirl. Indrajit was an accomplished photographer who won prizes both in India and the UK. He loved to travel, particularly in India, Europe and Russia. He also bred and trained large dogs such as Alsatians and Great Danes. He died on 19 March 1995 after a prolonged illness, survived by his wife and family.