Harold Jackson Burrows was born at Harrow, Middlesex, on 9 May 1902. His father was Harold Burrows FRCS and his grandfather was a graduate of St Bartholomew's Hospital, who became a Surgeon-Major in the Bombay Army. He was educated at Edinburgh House, Lee-on-Solent and Cheltenham College, where he was a scholar. He then went to King's College, Cambridge, where he was a half-blue for rifle shooting, captained the shooting eight and regularly shot at Bisley. He went to St Bartholomew's Hospital for his clinical training, won the Bentley Prize and qualified in 1927. He was house surgeon to the surgical professorial unit (1927-28) followed by his appointment as third assistant on this unit, working with Professor George Gask, Sir Thomas Dunhill, Mr (later Sir) James Paterson Ross, Mr (later Sir) Geoffrey Keynes. He was awarded a Beaverbrook Research Scholarship by the Royal College of Surgeons (1930-31) and he returned to Cambridge to work on tissue culture, thus increasing his knowledge of pathology as a basis of clinical work. He also spent six months at the Rockefeller Institute, New York, working under Alexis Carrel. Later he continued his research in the physiology department at the Royal College of Surgeons. Jackson Burrows was appointed surgical registrar at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in 1931 and decided to devote his professional life to orthopaedic surgery. He was inspired by R C Elmslie, the first specialist orthopaedic surgeon at Bart's and one of the great pioneers in this speciality. They had much in common and Jackson Burrows remained a devoted disciple. He was also encouraged and helped by S L Higgs. He was appointed chief assistant in the orthopaedic department at St Bartholomew's Hospital (1931-36) and assistant orthopaedic surgeon (1937-48). When the second world war broke out he moved to Friern Barnet Hospital under the wartime arrangements of the Emergency Medical Service. As a Surgeon-Commander in the RNVR Jackson Burrows spent about two years of his service in Australia, renewing and forming many lasting friendships with antipodean surgeons who held him in high esteem. In 1949 he was greatly pleased to become an active civilian consultant surgeon to the Royal Navy and continued until 1977 in an honorary capacity. After the war he was appointed orthopaedic surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital (1948-67) and lecturer in orthopaedics at St Bartholomew's Medical College. He had a long association with the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital as assistant surgeon (1946-48); orthopaedic surgeon (1948-67) and he was Dean, Institute of Orthopaedics, British Postgraduate Medical Federation, University of London, 1946-64 and 1967-70. The latter appointment was a tremendous task which he took up with his usual enthusiasm, creating a department of pathology, a library which he largely furnished as well as providing the nucleus of books of historical orthopaedic interest, and a department of medical photography. In addition to all these responsible posts, he was honorary orthopaedic surgeon to the National Hospital for Diseases of the Nervous System and to Chailey Heritage Craft School and Hospital which was near to his heart. He was consultant advisor in orthopaedics to the Ministry of Health and Chairman, Standing Advisory Committee on Artificial Limbs. He was awarded the Robert Jones Gold Medal in 1937 and he was elected to the executive committee of the British Orthopaedic Association, holding important posts culminating in his election as President in 1966-67. He was President of the Section of Orthopaedics, Royal Society of Medicine and served on the Council from 1964 to 1972. He was Nuffield Visiting Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, in 1963 and in 1964 he was visiting Professor at Los Angeles. In 1964 he was elected a member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons and served until 1972. He was a Hunterian Professor in 1932 and received honourable mention for the Jacksonian Prize in 1933. He made a great contribution to the *Journal of bone and joint surgery* as assistant editor, then deputy editor and he was an active chairman of the editorial board from 1961 until 1973. During the whole of this period he was tireless in editing or rewriting other contributors' articles and he made a most valuable contribution to the style in which these articles were written. His own writings were admirable contributions to the literature and his clarity of thought and economy of expression were a constant challenge to contributors, for he had a great concern for the use of English. He became a Fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland; the Société Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopèdique; a member of the International Skeletal Society; a corresponding member of the Australian and American Orthopaedic Association and a member of the New Zealand Association. The Institute of Orthopaedics was a major concern of his and he was largely responsible for the funding of the only Chair in Orthopaedics in the University by the then National Fund for Research in Crippling Diseases, first held by his respected colleague, Sir Herbert Seddon, and the rich collection of historical books in orthopaedics. He was a first-rate orthopaedic clinician and surgeon and his patients looked upon him as a comforter and friend as well as a surgeon. There can be few famous surgeons who were so selfless and retiring and he was a gentleman whose kindness, courtesy, humour and work for others is long remembered. He was known as Jack to his family, Jacko or JB to his many friends and colleagues. He never married but was survived by his brother Kenneth and many adoring nieces and nephews when he died on 5 February 1981 aged 78 years.