Geoffrey Greatrex was a consultant general surgeon at Mansfield General Hospital and King’s Mill Hospital, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. He was born in Halstead, Essex on 3 March 1933, the son of Harold Victor Greatrex and Henrietta Florence Greatrex née Wake. Geoffrey lived most of his childhood with his parents and younger brother in Earls Colne, Essex. His father was the local headmaster of the village primary school, earning a very modest income, such that the bicycle was the only means of transport, particularly in wartime. Geoffrey’s love of cycling came from this period and by the age of seven he was also a crack shot with an air rifle. Geoffrey shone in primary school and loved acting, and it was there he was spotted by the headmaster of the nearby private school, Gosfield. The head spoke to Harold, inviting him to send his son to the school and offering a scholarship. Geoffrey would cycle the seven miles each way every day. From the age of nine his diary showed that Geoffrey knew he would become a surgeon, but science was not well taught at Gosfield, so he eventually moved to the local grammar school. There he excelled, but more especially in the arts, such that he was encouraged to apply to Cambridge for a degree in English literature and was accepted, but his heart was in surgery and he turned the offer down. In 1952, he enrolled at Durham University to study medicine. This took place at Newcastle, which he loved, and it remained his fondest memory, as evidenced by his intention to make a generous bequest to his *alma mater*, as well as to his Royal College. He qualified in 1957 and did the mandatory year of medicine and surgery as a junior doctor at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle. National Service followed and he joined the Parachute Regiment in 1958, as a captain in the RAMC. Most of the next three years were spent in Cyprus and, after the initial hard basic training, Geoffrey determinedly kept up with the men by making over 50 parachute jumps. He had avoided detection of his aortic valve murmur by talking through the chest examination during his medical! In 1961, he returned to Newcastle as an anatomy demonstrator and research fellow: for two years he taught and investigated the mesenteric lymphatic system. In 1963, he was a general surgical registrar at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, where he gained valuable experience in many sub-specialities and passed his FRCS in 1965 and the Canadian equivalent in 1966. He then went to Toronto, where he was a research fellow at the University of Toronto focusing on kidney transplantation and organ preservation. In 1967, he became the chief resident in general surgery at the new Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto. Here, he expanded his experience into vascular, thoracic and head and neck surgery. Whilst at Toronto, he flew out to Newfoundland and did a three-month stint at the Grenfell Hospital at St John’s. In 1967, he married a Canadian psychologist, Toni, and they had a daughter, Alexandra (Sascha), but sadly, after they moved to Boston in the US in 1968, they parted. He became a research fellow at Harvard, this time using radioactive creatinine in dogs to work out the muscle mass of a living body. He returned for a year to Newcastle, as first assistant to the professor, before returning to the USA in private practice in Manchester, New Hampshire from 1971 to 1975. Life was not all work and he enjoyed tennis and kept horses, but the ethos of the States and his unhappy personal life brought him back to the UK. In 1976, he became a locum consultant surgeon in Basildon, Essex and then, in 1977, was appointed to Mansfield General Hospital in Nottinghamshire. He was representative of the last of the true general surgeons, before super specialisation became the norm. In our small district hospitals in Mansfield and at King’s Mill in Sutton-in-Ashfield, he was a man who could easily cope with anything thrown at him – even skull cavity and arterial problems. Not only that, he had no airs and graces, was an excellent listener, devoted to his work, loved his patients and was supportive of his staff and his colleagues, including one of the authors (Barry J Fairbrother). For local GPs, including another of the authors (Peter P Dawson), he was a breath of fresh air and so helpful with difficult problems. Later he became a surgical teacher to the University of Nottingham and, in 1984, tutor to the Royal College of Surgeons. Finally, in 1986, he became an examiner for the FRCS, continuing even after retirement. He was an active member of the Mansfield Medical Society, becoming president in 1986. He retired formally from clinical work in 1998, but continued doing sessions for the Trust for a further five years. Another of the authors (Peter T Bull) became his friend and regular anaesthetist for over 20 years – and found him to be a dedicated surgeon with a keen interest in vascular work, though his forte was thyroid surgery. His reputation in all forms of surgery gained him great accolades and he always seemed to have the cream of junior staff in his wake. It was not surprising to see how well he treated those trainees, always striving to make sure those who deserved most went on to achieve good posts when they moved on, one of whom (Saroj Das) became a professor of vascular surgery in London. Geoffrey was one of four pioneers who invested vast sums to set up a local private hospital in 1983. He never got the credit that the enterprise deserved. His brother Tim was the financial and legal consultant for this project. Outside the hospital, Geoffrey was somewhat obsessive, with a home as spartan and tidy as an operating theatre, but he would always find time to cycle. One GP friend introduced him to tree felling and another to hill walking in Snowdonia and Scotland. He made friends all through his life and was still keeping up with them even to the last week of his life. He outlived several of his closest friends, but kept in touch with their families, offering comfort and support. His other interests included a lifelong passion for literature and music, as well as language and he became fluent in French. He was a member of the local Magdala Debating Society and latterly he enjoyed being taken to lectures at Cranwell by another old surgeon friend. He loved history and art, especially of Essex, Suffolk and Constable country, leading groups to visit Suffolk churches by bicycle for several years. For heavy duty cycling, he joined a local group which specialised in riding the daunting Derbyshire Peak District hills. This strenuous activity was only briefly interrupted by an aortic valve replacement, with a mechanical device, at the age of 60. It only stopped, dramatically, in June 2010 when he was knocked off his bicycle by a motorist using a mobile phone. He suffered multiple fractures and a haemothorax and nearly died, being on warfarin for the artificial valve. From then on, a slow deterioration commenced with intractable low back and hip pain. His personality, which had been fearless, changed too and he was much more introspective. Surprisingly, for a surgeon, death was a difficult thing to face up to, but he maintained his Christian faith and took Communion even in his own home when too weak to attend church. Heart failure due to amyloidosis eventually became overwhelming and he died peacefully on 20 April 2018, just after his 85th birthday. His last year had been made all the more comfortable after the chance meeting of an old girlfriend, Ruth, who became his companion. He was survived by Ruth, his first wife (Toni) and daughter (Sascha), and second wife Sheila (née Beechey), from whom he had been estranged for many years.