Tara Chandra was principal of the Kanpur Medical College, India. He was born on 25 August 1925, in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh state, and received his medical education at KG Medical College, Lucknow, gaining 16 medals and prizes, and coming first in the final MB BS. After junior posts in Lucknow, he passed his masters in surgery in 1949 and went to England for further training. He won the Hallett prize in 1951, only the third Indian to win that distinction and passed the final in the same year. He returned to Lucknow in 1952 as associate professor of surgery, and in 1963 was appointed professor and head of the department of surgery at the GSVM Medical College, Kanpur, and later at Meerut. He returned to the UK as a Commonwealth fellow to train in cardiovascular surgery. He became principal of the Kanpur Medical College and dean of the faculty of medicine. He held many distinguished offices in the International College of Proctology, the *Indian Journal of Surgery* and the quarterly *Journal of Medical Sciences*. He was President of the Indian Medical Association (Uttar Pradesh State) and the Association of Surgeons of India in 1983. He was an outstanding teacher, administrator and organiser. He left a wife, one son and three daughters. He died on 15 May 1998.