Charles Grant Clark was born in 1926 and attended the academy at Fraserburgh, Scotland. On leaving school during the war he was initially accepted for the RAFVR but transferred to the Army serving in Bristol and India with the Blood Transfusion Service. He returned to Aberdeen for his medical training where he achieved a number of academic prizes. He moved to London for a year of research with Professor John Vane in the pharmacology department at the College but soon returned to Aberdeen as a senior registrar and later as a senior lecturer. In 1964 he was made a reader in surgery in Leeds where he developed his interest in inflammatory diseases of the bowel as a result of his work with Professor John Goligher. He was also influenced and encouraged by Sir Charles Illingworth, Sir James Learmonth and William Wilson. It was in this exciting era of new developments in gastrointestinal surgery that he was foremost in the field, and he was able to develop many of his ideas within the British Society of Gastroenterology. It was no surprise that he became not only treasurer but also President of that Society. In 1967 he was appointed to the Chair of Surgery at University College Hospital where he continued to influence research particularly on the H2 receptor antagonists and in addition he was actively guiding research into colonic cancer and the use of laser techniques. A long-standing interest in surgical oncology led to a breast clinic being set up. He was a tireless worker and entered with enthusiasm into writing, examining, lecturing, medical school management and travel. A member of the executive and international committees of the International Society of Surgery for several years he was also an assistant editor of the *World journal of surgery*. He was a compassionate person and well liked by his patients. His main hobby was gardening and he always had a flower in his office. Not content with simple horticulture he also cultivated rare varieties of orchid. He was survived by his wife, Nita, and two children Hugh and Yvonne when he died on 8 August 1988 aged 62 years.