Richard Boggon, known to his friends as Dick, was a consultant general surgeon at the Mid-Essex Health Trust in Chelmsford. He was the son of Roland Boggon and Mollie Boggon née Newell. He schooled at Oundle and in 1954 proceeded to Clare College, Cambridge. His clinical studies were at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, from where he qualified in 1961. Much of his surgical training was at St Thomas’, the hospital at which his father was a consultant and during which time he felt somewhat overshadowed by his parent. He spent time on the surgical unit with A J Palfrey pursuing research into the microscopic anatomy of human lymphatics under the direction of John Kinmonth, which resulted in his being awarded the degree of MChir from Cambridge in 1972. This work was published in the *Journal of Anatomy* (‘The microscopic anatomy of human lymphatic trunks’ *J Anat.* 1973 Apr;114[Pt 3]:389-405). During his youth, he was a notable rugby player, captaining the St Thomas’ first 15 and having a trial for England. He was appointed to his consultant post in 1974 and practised the whole range of general surgery including peripheral vascular surgery. He was a dexterous surgeon and a very good surgical opinion, but published little and took no part in surgical politics. Dick was a big man physically and of forceful character. When sometimes irritated in theatre his juniors called him (behind his back) ‘the towering inferno’. Probably as a result of his earlier sporting activity, he developed hip problems in his fifties and underwent bilateral joint replacement surgery, which a few years later needed revision. In his early seventies, he developed a carcinoma of the kidney and after surgical removal had numerous complications, which necessitated a long stay in intensive care and the loss of several stones in weight. While a registrar he married Anne, a St Thomas’ theatre sister and they had three children, Nicholas, Stephen and Claire. Sadly, Anne became chronically ill and eventually the marriage was annulled. In his late life he re-married, to Margaret, an Australian, also a nurse. He died on 7 February 2017 aged 81.