David John Tibbs was a consultant general and vascular surgeon in Oxford who, during the Second World War, was awarded a Military Cross for his bravery on D-Day. He was born in Croydon on 10 March 1920, the youngest of three sons of Evan Llewellyn Tibbs, a city trader, and Mildred Ann Tibbs née Mundell, a housewife. He attended Wallington County School in Sutton, where he was school captain, and then studied medicine at Oxford and Guy’s Hospital Medical School. He qualified from the wartime shortened medical course with the conjoint examination in 1942 and gained his MB BS in 1943. He joined the newly-formed parachute section of the Royal Army Medical Corps and was posted to 225 Parachute Field Ambulance. He was among the first British paratroopers to be dropped into France on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and, in charge of 12 stretcher bearers, was tasked with picking up injured paratroopers. The citation given at the time of the award of his Military Cross reads: ‘At first the Defence Zone was subject to light Machine-Gun fire and later in the day the area was heavily sniped. In spite of this and the lack of cover, this party, under the personal leadership of Captain Tibbs, worked unceasingly until 1400 hours, when they had collected all casualties. During the eight hours the party sustained two killed and four wounded, but regardless of personal risk, Captain Tibbs completed his task.’ A few days later the regimental medical officer of 13th Parachute Battalion (13 Para) was severely wounded; Tibbs replaced him and remained with 13 Para for the rest of the war. In August 1944, he was shot by a sniper while rescuing an injured soldier; he was wounded in the right shoulder causing a severe haemorrhage, but managed to crawl to safety and was evacuated to England. After recuperating, he rejoined 13 Para in England and then returned to the frontline in December 1944, fighting alongside the Americans in the Battle of the Bulge at Ardennes in Belgium, the last major German offensive on the Western Front. After the defeat of Germany, 13 Para was posted to Singapore, Malaya and Indonesia, largely on internal security duties. Tibbs was demobilised in 1946. He returned to London, to Guy’s and Putney hospitals, and then, in 1951, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was also a reader in surgery at Durham University. In 1961, he moved to the United Oxford Hospitals as a consultant vascular and general surgeon and a clinical lecturer. At Oxford he was a leading member of the planning team for the new John Radcliffe Hospital and president of the Oxford Medical Society in 1979. He retired in 1985. In 2012, he published his memoirs *Parachute doctor* (Sabrestorm Publishing). In 2016, he was awarded the Légion d’honneur, the highest French honour, for his role in the D-Day landings. David Tibbs died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on 16 August 2017. He was 97. He was married twice. His first wife was Patricia (‘Paddy’) O’Meara, a nurse at Guy’s, whom he married in 1943. They had three daughters, three sons, ten grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. After his divorce, he married Marie Ames in 1968.