Ranjit Basu was born on 15 August 1926 and studied for his MB BS at Grant Medical College in Bombay. He became a Fellow of the College in 1957 and came to England to live in Liverpool. He became surgical registrar at Alder Hey Children's Hospital and then senior registrar at the Liverpool Thoracic Surgical Centre and the Broadgreen Hospital. He was an associate member of the British Society for the Surgery of the Hand and a member of the Casualty Surgeons' Association. On 8 October 1965 he was appointed consultant in charge of the accident and emergency department at Whiston Hospital and St Helen's and Knowsley AHA. He retired from this post on 31 August 1987 and died a few months later. He was survived by his wife, Dr Raj Basu (née Kumar) MB BS Bombay 1950, who was associate specialist in accident and emergency medicine at Arrowe Park Hospital from 1 November 1964 to 2 October 1989 when she took up an appointment at Victoria Central Hospital, Wallasey.