Anthony ('Tony') Harding Rains was the first holder of the chair of surgery at Charing Cross Hospital, an authority on diseases of the biliary system, but arguably best known for his longstanding editorship of *Bailey and Love's short practice of surgery* (London, H K Lewis). Tony was the tenth child born to Robert Russell Harding Rains and Florence (née Rapson). His father was a medical practitioner, as were two great uncles in the 1840s, while his mother hailed from farming stock. He was educated at St Monica's School, Warminster, and Christ's Hospital School, Horsham, before proceeding by means of an entrance scholarship to St Mary's Hospital Medical School. Here he won the Kitchener scholarship and gained merit in anatomy and forensic medicine. Qualifying in 1943, he became house surgeon to C A Pannett, before joining the Royal Air Force, where he served in India and Japan as a lecturer in aviation medicine. After demobilisation, he worked with R M Handfield-Jones and Arthur Porritt back at St Mary's, before passing the FRCS in 1948 and relocating as a lecturer in surgery at Birmingham University to F A R Stammers. He later became a senior lecturer and then a consultant in Birmingham, but in 1959 returned to London as the foundation professor of surgery at Charing Cross Hospital, where he remained for the rest of his clinical career. He was not a prolific author, but became an authority on diseases of the biliary tree, giving a Hunterian lecture titled 'Biliary obstruction in the region of the porta hepatis' (*Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 1959 Feb;24[2]:69-100) and publishing a book *Gallstones: causes and treatment* (London, William Heinemann Medical Books) in 1964, as well as several articles on related matters. However, in the field of medical publishing, his name was preeminent from 1965 as the co-editor (with W M Capper) of successive editions of *Bailey and Love's short practice of surgery*, at a time when this book was required reading for all UK medical students and trainees in surgery. Tony was a founder member of the Surgical Research Society and an honorary consultant to the Army. He was long associated with the Royal College of Surgeons, being an examiner in pathology for the primary FRCS and later a member of the Court of Examiners. He was the organising secretary of the international Lister Centenary Conference in 1967. He followed Sir Cecil Wakeley as editor of the *Annals* in 1969 and in 1974 introduced a restyled and resized journal, remaining editor until 1984. He was elected to Council in 1972, becoming vice president in 1983. The following year he gave the Hunterian oration titled 'The continuing message' (*Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 1984 May;66[3]:151-8). He was created CBE in 1986. In 1943 he married and had three daughters, two of whom became nurses. Tony was a softly spoken, modest and gentle man. He was kind to his juniors and much loved. After he retired from Council, he left living in London for a country life, where he enjoyed gardening, painting and forestry. He rarely set foot in the College again, believing that when one retired from responsibility at the College one should stay away. He died on the 23 June 2014, aged 93.