Bernard Fairburn, the son of Lazarus and Leah Fairburn (née Margolin) was born at Christchurch, Hampshire, on 3 August 1916. He was educated at Bec School, Battersea, securing an arts scholarship in 1933 before entering the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in the following year. He qualified MRCS, LRCP in 1939. There is no record of his early appointments but he served in the RAMC from 1941 to 1946, with four years on the North West frontier of India, and achieved the rank of Major. He graduated after the war and then took the FRCS before his appointment as senior registrar in neurosurgery at the Middlesex Hospital. He became consultant neurosurgeon to Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, in 1946, with an honorary appointment to the London Hospital and was later also appointed consultant neurosurgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1971. The greater part of his surgery was undertaken in the neurosurgical centre at Oldchurch Hospital, in the same region as Bart's and the London. By sheer hard work, combined with tact and organisational ability, he and his senior colleague, Leslie C Oliver, built up a first class unit from small beginnings. In 1977 he was awarded Her Majesty the Queen's Silver Jubilee medal for services to the community. By the time of his retirement in 1981 he had wide experience in his specialty. Although he did not write a great deal in the medical literature there were some thirteen personal or joint publications in his name. Outside his professional work he was keenly interested in chess, having captained the London University team as a student and later representing Essex on several occasions. He was also keen on bridge, music and opera, and he enjoyed travel, especially in Italy. He had married Doris Freedman, a nurse, in 1947, by whom he had a son, Richard, who qualified in medicine and two daughters, Joanne and Lynne, one of whom became a nurse. He was studying for a bachelor of law degree when struck by his terminal illness and died on 12 October 1984, survived by his wife and children.