Derrick Randall was a consultant general surgeon in Sheffield. He was born on 10 June 1921 in Luton, the son of Joseph and Rose Randall. He won a scholarship to Ashton Grammar School in Dunstable and then studied medicine at King's College, London, and Westminster Hospital. He qualified in April 1943 in the shortest possible time, by passing the conjoint diploma. He enlisted for war service in the Army and served as a lieutenant in the RAMC. He then volunteered to serve in the First Airlanding Anti-tank Battery. In December 1943 he was on embarkation leave and he married Zoe Ellingham, who was working in the Land Army. The First Airborne Division, of which Derrick Randall was medical officer, first saw action in Operation Market Garden, when the division was flown to Arnhem. Derrick manned the medical aid post at Hartenstein Hotel, Oosterbeek. (The hotel is now a museum and has a section devoted to lieutenant Derrick Randall.) Soon the casualties flooded in and Derrick's management of the wounded with limited equipment was commendable. All the supplies were dropped from the air. One air drop contained a phial of white powder without instructions. Derrick wondered if it was the new wonder drug penicillin and he used it in infected wounds - it worked! When the Army retreated, Derrick was ordered to remain to care for the wounded. He was captured and spent the next seven months caring for the interned troops in various prisoner of war camps in Germany. Derrick was liberated from Oflag 79 at Braunschweig by the advancing American Ninth Army. He was repatriated suffering from severe malnutrition and associated illnesses. Zoë nursed him back to health. He returned to active duties with the Sixth Airborne Division and was about to embark to Ceylon when the two atom bombs were dropped, ending the war with Japan. The division was diverted to Palestine. Here he ran into trouble with the authorities for refusing to wear a Red Cross armband and carry a pistol at the same time. Honour was satisfied on both sides when he was seconded to a military hospital for clinical duties, but as an anaesthetist! Derrick spent a few months in Cyprus, caring for displaced people in various camps. On 20 December 1946 *The London Gazette* published Randall's name as being recognised by King George VI for his gallant and distinguished services while a prisoner of war: he was immediately promoted in rank to captain. Derrick was then demobilised and was home in time for Christmas. Derrick was now able to continue his medical training in Sheffield and was reunited with his wife, Zoë, who had entered medical school in that city. In 1947 he was appointed house surgeon and then clinical assistant to St Leger Brockman at Sheffield Royal Infirmary. In 1948 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and was appointed surgical tutor at the University of Sheffield. He was now part of a university academic team, but he did not have a university degree, so in 1951 he sat the Westminster Hospital final MB BS examinations, he passed with honours and was awarded the university medal. In that same year (1951) Zoe graduated MB ChB in Sheffield. Derrick was now surgical first assistant to Clifford Jones. In July 1952 he returned to London as surgical first assistant at St George's Hospital. From this he gained his definitive post as consultant general surgeon in Sheffield and honorary lecturer and examiner in the university. He published papers in the *British Journal of Surgery* and contributed chapters to Charles Rob and Rodney Smith's book *Operative surgery*. Zoë did not work when the children were very young, but gradually restarted her medical career, working first in general practice and then studying radiotherapy. She started as a senior house officer, took her fellowship and gradually advanced until she was appointed as a consultant radiotherapist and oncologist at Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield. As Derrick also did surgical sessions in this hospital, they became known as 'the butcher and the baker'! For many years Derrick was an examiner in the primary FRCS (England) in physiology and later he became a member of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons, examining for the final examination of the FRCS. He was also at various times external examiner in surgery at the universities of Edinburgh, Liverpool, Baghdad, Mosul and Accra. He also taught at the universities in Mosul, Accra and Kumasi. Derrick was a supporter of the Sheffield branch of the British Medical Association and in 1968 he was elected chairman. He was also a member of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and was elected to its council; in 1978 he served as president. Derrick was the innovator of the Sheffield University medical students' tutorial group, a system where one student from each academic year is grouped with a graduate member of the school to meet each term; this mix widened the education of all. Derrick also instigated an elective system for final year students who would spend a term in a foreign medical school. As a surgeon Derrick was fully aware of the risks that smoking and obesity posed, so he insisted on weight loss and cessation of smoking before he operated, consequently he has to be regarded as one of the forerunners of the anti-obesity and anti-smoking campaigns. Over the years he was eager to embrace newer treatment techniques, such as isolated regional perfusion of anti-cancer drugs in the management of malignant melanoma of the limb, as advocated by Oscar Creech and Edward Krementz of New Orleans. Operative cholangiography (or radiographically outlining the major bile ducts during surgery), in common use, was in his work a more sophisticated investigation, employing an image intensifier with videotape recording. Derrick did sterling work as chairman of the Specialist Advisory Committee in General Surgery from 1978 to 1985. In 1969 he was elected and became an enthusiastic member of the Travelling Surgical Club (now the Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland). He and Zoë hosted members and their spouses at a home meeting of the Club in October 1973. Sheffield provided the Club 'with a meeting as well organised as the clinical standards were high', as the editor of the annual report opined. In their spare time Derrick, Zoe and their children enjoyed walking on the local moors and dinghy sailing in a Sheffield reservoir. Derrick retired from surgical practice in 1986 when he and Zoe moved to Southwold, Suffolk. Derrick became curator of the local museum and a guide, leading visitors around the town's interesting buildings. Sadly Zoe died in September 2001 from a carcinoma of the renal pelvis. In 2007 Derrick moved to Fordingbridge, Hampshire, to be near his family. He died peacefully in his home on 1 March 2015, aged 93. He was survived by his children Julia, Christopher and Heather.