Clem Grimshaw was a thoracic surgeon in Oxford. He was born on 15 May 1915, in Batley, Yorkshire, to a wool family and was educated at Woodhouse Grove, the local Methodist school, where he learned to play the organ. A Latin master encouraged him to go to Edinburgh. On qualifying, he spent a year in general practice in Perth and, while waiting to go into the Army, he did a temporary post in the obstetrics department at Hope Hospital, Salford. There two surgeons died in the Blitz, and Clem was kept back for surgical duties, after which he passed the Edinburgh FRCS and then joined the RAMC in the Far East. After the war he returned to specialise in thoracic surgery with Andrew Logan and with Holmes Sellors at Harefield until he was appointed as a second consultant thoracic surgeon to the United Oxford Hospitals. At first he was dealing with pulmonary tuberculosis, but his practice gradually expanded into the surgery of lung cancer and the heart. He retired at 63 to spend time with his wife Hilde and four daughters. Much of his retirement was spent travelling in Scotland and Europe, reading widely, listening to music and playing golf. He died from congestive heart failure on 25 August 2005.