Roger Hughes Johnson was a consultant general surgeon at Whiston and St Helens hospitals, Merseyside. He was born in Southend-on-Sea on 24 July 1939. His father, William Joseph ('Bill') Johnson, was a firefighter and his mother, Irene Johnson (neé Hughes), taught home economics. His grandfather was a cockle fisherman. He grew up in Essex, where he attended Westcliff High School for Boys. He studied medicine at the Middlesex Hospital in London, qualifying in 1963. He began to pursue a surgical career, holding a number of training posts at various hospitals in the South East of England. At registrar level, partly because of the prevailing difficulty of obtaining the next promotion, but also because of a wanderlust for travel and adventure, he went to Africa. In 1969, he was appointed, under the auspices of the British Overseas Development Agency, as a general surgeon to the Princess Marina Government Hospital in Botswana. He was the only government surgeon, although there were missionary surgeons in the hospital. This proved not only a challenge, but also a steep learning curve! Roger returned to the UK in 1974 but, like others in a similar position at the time, he struggled to get back into the UK system. After a number of locums, he took up a research post with Averil Mansfield, then a vascular surgeon in Liverpool. He needed an academic component on his CV. He worked on the development of a new method for the detection of the plasminogen activator content of vein walls. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon with a vascular interest, to Whiston and St Helens hospitals, Merseyside, in 1977. He provided a very welcome addition to the existing team of three general surgeons. He worked tirelessly and conscientiously with his colleagues to provide a caring and expanding surgical service, developing a hitherto lacking vascular dimension to the service. He was committed to playing his part in persuading the university to send surgical students to the hospital. His contribution in this field was highly valued. In his later years, he was the lead surgeon in the establishment of a dedicated breast unit in the hospitals, the Johnson room being a lasting memorial to the part he played. Roger loved singing. He was a bass baritone in the Ormskirk Music Society and Wigan Choral Society. His love of history led to a history degree as a mature student. Hockey - playing, umpiring and coaching - was another passion of his, as were watersports. He met Helen, a mathematician, when they were both students in London. They married in 1964. Roger struggled latterly with Parkinson's disease for a number of years, but sadly died from complications following open heart surgery on 7 August 2017. He was 78. He was survived by his wife, Helen, his son, Richard, and his daughter, Peta.