John Andrew McCredie, known as Jack, was professor of surgery at the University of Western Ontario. He was born on 8 September 1923 in Annahilt, County Down, Northern Ireland. His father, Andrew McCredie, was a draper; his mother was Agnes McCredie née McCandless. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and then studied medicine at Queen’s University, Belfast. He held junior posts at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. He particularly remembered being influenced by Harold Rodgers in Belfast and by Warren Cole at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He gained his fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and of Edinburgh in 1951. In 1956, he was awarded the Jacksonian prize. He was later appointed as professor of surgery at the University of Western Ontario. He published papers on cancer, specifically chemotherapy and immunology, and edited *Basic surgery* (New York, Macmillan, London, Baillière Tindall, c.1977). He also volunteered with CARE Medico. In 1951, he married Eithne Josephine Ewing. They had five children – John, Kevin, Eithne, Desmond and Ross – and eight grandchildren (Brynn, Sean, Keira, Sarah, Geraldine, David, Sadie and Willie). John Andrew McCredie died on 9 July 2003. He was 79.