Reginald Eric Norrish was born on 15 April 1900. He qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1927 at St Bartholomew's Hospital after a previous qualification in pharmacy and was a demonstrator in the anatomy department. He passed the FRCS in 1929 and joined the staff of the Royal Northern Hospital and the 4th London Territorial Army Hospital. In 1939 he was posted to Northern Ireland as a surgical specialist with the rank of Major. He experienced the raids on Belfast, indeed on the hospital itself, which killed one of his surgical colleagues and the pathologist to the hospital among many others. In 1941 he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel and dispatched to India as an officer in charge of a surgical division. He remained in India and Burma until demobilization at the end of 1945 and was awarded the Territorial Decoration in that year. After the war he was appointed full time surgeon to the City General Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent, where his hard work and teaching were admired by countless patients and his many colleagues. He was a popular figure at hospital functions and prize givings which he attended even after his retirement and in spite of ill health. He retired to the Isle of Wight with his wife Norah who was a trained theatre sister. His elder brother was Professor of Physical Chemistry at Cambridge University and a Nobel Prize winner. He died on 24 October 1976, survived by his wife and their children Janet and Edward.