Born 7 July 1899 at Brakpan, Transvaal, South Africa, son of Leon Lurie, merchant, and Sare his wife. He was educated at South African College School, Capetown, and at Capetown University, where he took first place in his matriculation examination and graduated MA with distinction. He was elected to a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford, where he graduated BM BCh in 1926, and won an entrance scholarship at Guy's Hospital, from which he took the Fellowship in 1932 though not previously a Member of the College. Lurie then returned to South Africa where he served as registrar and was elected assistant surgeon at the General Hospital, Johannesburg, in 1935 and was lecturer in surgery at the Witwatersrand University. In 1941 he joined the South African Army Medical Corps and was commissioned lieutenant-colonel. He was attached to No 5 South African Base Hospital, and then posted as second in command and head of the surgical division of Hospital 106. He was killed in September 1942 in a car accident in Egypt, while on active service there. He was unmarried. Lurie was a quiet, reserved man. His recreations were lawn tennis and table tennis.