Geoffrey Forbes Homer was a general surgeon. Born on 4 July 1911 in Tisdale, Saskatchewan, he was the son of James Homer, a merchant and local mayor, and his wife Alice, a teacher. He studied medicine at the University of Manitoba where he was awarded the Isbister scholarship. After graduation in 1935 he was an intern at Winnipeg Hospital before moving to the Yukon and Aklavik in the North West Territory. Here he undertook the challenging task of being doctor to 3500 inhabitants in a 300,000 sq mile area stretching from the Alaska border to King William Island, Nunavit. Essential aids were the bush pilot, radio and dog sledge. In 1939 he joined the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in Victoria and was appointed medical officer for the Canadian Officers Convalescent Home in the UK. During the second world war he served as a major in the invasions of Normandy, Belgium and Holland. On demobilisation he trained at Guy’s and the Middlesex Hospitals in London and passed the fellowship in 1946. Returning that year to Victoria, he eventually became chief of surgery at the Veterans’ and St Josephs’ Hospitals and president of the Victoria Medical Society. He sat on the founding board of governors of Victoria University and was on its senate for many years. On reaching the age of 65 he spent ten years with the cardiovascular unit of the Royal Jubilee Hospital. While he was in the UK he had met Joan Fellowes whom he married in 1942. They had three sons, Garth, Keith and Bruce. He died at home in Cadboro Bay, Vancouver Island on 16 August 2005, aged 94, survived by his wife, sons, daughters-in-law, Penny and Dean, and grandchildren, Brendan, Delia, Geoff and Christopher.