Brian McEvedy was a consultant in general surgery at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was born in Manchester on 13 December 1923, the second of three medical sons of Peter McEvedy of Ancoats Hospital, one of the great names in hernia surgery. His mother was Lilian Grace née Dennis, the daughter of an Essex farmer. Brian was educated at Rugby and Exeter College, Oxford, from where he went on to do clinical medicine at Guy's Hospital. There he was house surgeon to Sir Hedley Atkins and also to Alfred Blalock, the pioneer cardiac surgeon, during his sabbatical visit to Guy's. After junior posts at Guy's, he did his National Service in the RAMC. Returning to civilian life, he first worked with his father at Ancoats Hospital, then at University College Hospital, where he was appointed senior surgical registrar. This post included a year's attachment in Ibadan, Nigeria. In 1958, Brian was appointed consultant in general surgery at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead. Parotid tumours, operative cholangiography, gastric and rectal surgery, and the surgery of ganglia were particular interests, and he published on all these topics. He was a popular teacher, both of undergraduates and junior staff. He was a member of the Court of Examiners in 1969. He retired from the NHS in 1988. Brian had many hobbies: book collecting, African art, foreign travel and gardening. His service in the RAMC was spent in the Canal Zone in Egypt, where he developed a lifelong interest in ancient Egyptian history and culture. He came to know the country extremely well, and after he retired he returned to his old Oxford college, Exeter, as a full-time undergraduate and in 1991 took a BA in Egyptology. Subsequently, he took part in an Oxford expedition to Saqqara as an epigraphist. In 1960 he married Gill Grover, a physiotherapist. They had three children, Peter, Jainie and Jason. The eldest, Peter, qualified in medicine at Newcastle. Brian died on 27 February 2002.