Douglas William Claridge Northfield was born in London in February 1902. He received his medical training at Guy's Hospital, where he also qualified in dentistry. After qualification he did general surgery at Guy's where he was demonstrator in anatomy. He obtained the MB BS (London) with the Gold Medal and proceeded MS in 1931; he had previously become FRCS in 1928. Northfield's life work may be said to have begun in 1934 when he joined Hugh Cairns as house surgeon at the London Hospital. In 1938 he was elected consultant neurosurgeon and he continued in this post until his retirement in 1967. During the second world war he operated at Chase Farm Hospital, returning to the London in 1946, where he remained until retirement in 1967. He rapidly gained an international reputation as a highly skilled neurosurgeon, and there were many overseas visitors to the London Hospital who came to watch him operate and to discuss neurological problems. He was however, essentially a surgical neurologist, the title he preferred, and his great strength lay in his immense clinical capacity. Careful and painstaking in examination and decisive in opinion, his aid was sought by patients from far and near. Although surrounded by devoted colleagues, Northfield headed no school, nor did he develop a large department. His contribution to his subject lay in his own professional skills and the carefully observed clinical studies which formed the basis of his many papers and communications. In his earlier days Northfield worked on headache, making observations on the contribution of pain-bearing structures within the head, also on the thalamus. He was a pioneer in the surgery of epilepsy and characteristically versed himself in electroencephalography, including electrocorticography and the use of deep electrodes. His results were good, owing to his great sense of what could or could not be done. Right up to his retirement he was in touch with surgical advance and was quick to employ new techniques and methods. At times severe in manner to those who could not see into the man, for the humorous twinkle in the eye was never far away, he expected dedication from his juniors. He could never understand why anyone might wish to play rugger or row on a Wednesday or Saturday when there was work to be done. He drove himself hard, working late at hospital and far into the night at home, and he expected others to follow his example. His book *The surgery of the nervous system* (1973), provides a lasting memorial to his professional achievement. He was past President of the Neurological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Electro-Encephalographic Society, the British Section of the International League against Epilepsy, past President and past secretary of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons and past secretary of the International Congress of Neurological Surgery. Douglas Northfield had an international reputation and received many honours, but his work remained centred at the London Hospital. The abiding memory of him at the London will be his regular attendance at the weekly neurological sciences meeting where, until four days before the stroke which ultimately proved fatal, his alert enquiring figure was the source of a stream of pertinent, well informed and sometimes devastating comment on the matter in hand. His work was his life and his outside interests were few, though he loved music. He had a delightful sense of humour and was a generous host and friend. His retirement was clouded by the prolonged, crippling illness which afflicted his wife. He nursed her devotedly, and after her death, in 1974, he gradually recovered from the loss and pursued life alone with the courage he had always displayed. They had a son, who is a physician, and a daughter. He died on 15 July 1976, aged 74 years.