Born on 31 December 1917, Baron was educated at Oundle, Trinity College, Cambridge and St Bartholomew's Hospital. During the second world war he served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Burma and the Far East. After the war he was a registrar at the Hammersmith Hospital and research fellow and surgical first assistant at St George's Hospital. Baron was appointed to St Margaret's Hospital, Epping, in the early 1950s and became one of a group of young, keen, and well-trained consultants. Despite the usual financial strictures, poor facilities and draughty hutted wards, acting as a team they transformed this old workhouse into a flourishing modern hospital. He played a great part in the development of St Margaret's Hospital and Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow. He was a truly general surgeon, able to resect an oesophagus or do an abdominoperineal excision with the dexterity and success he had with thyroidectomies. A conservative surgeon, with his colleagues he developed the concept that surgical intervention in haematemesis should consist of the quickest procedure to stop the bleeding rather than the then accepted more radical approach. At the College he was Penrose May Surgical Tutor in 1962. Baron was well read and intellectual, and it was not unusual for him to complete the *Times* crossword between cases. He was a member of the MCC, and it was accepted that he did not operate on the days of the University cricket and rugby matches. He was a generous host. He much enjoyed family holidays in his house in Spain and taught himself Spanish and French, in which he became fluent. After his retirement, despite losing the sight of one eye and sustaining a severe knee injury, he continued with his extensive insurance and medicolegal practice until his death from a fulminating bilateral pneumonia. He died on 9 March 1994, survived by his wife, Ann, whom he had married in 1952, and two children, Andy and Betsy.