Guy Blackburn was born on 20 November 1911 in Harrogate, the eldest son of Dr A E Blackburn, a general practitioner, who later moved to Beckenham, Kent. Guy was educated at Rugby (without great exposure to the game!), Clare College, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew's Medical College. At Clare he took up tennis, a game he played and loved throughout his life. He qualified in 1935, gaining the Brackenbury Scholarship and Walsham Prize in surgery. He joined the Green Firm under Roberts, a pioneer chest surgeon, and Corbett, an excellent craft surgeon. Following Fellowship he became first assistant and continued to serve through the Blitz. One night the fires engulfed Gracechurch Street, yet the hospital survived, with work as usual. He joined the RAMC in 1942 as a surgical specialist and later that year landed in North Africa with the 1st Army. He formed a field surgical team, then a new concept, with Charles Robb. After the fall of Tunis he moved to Italy, usually serving in CCS's, in that long slogging campaign to reach the Po Valley by VE Day. In 1944 he was decorated for valiant action in the field and stayed on as OC Surgical Division, BMH Klagenfurt until 1946. He retained a lifelong love of Austria. Shortly after his return to Bart's he was appointed consultant surgeon to Guy's Hospital and later to Putney, Dollis Hill and Finchley Memorial Hospitals. His life's work was as a teaching and practical general surgeon, and he excelled at both. When an operation had gone well he would roll back on his heels, survey his handiwork and exclaim 'I love it!'. He was moulded in the Dunhill-Keynes tradition, and, following his 1947 visit to the USA he was much influenced by Coller at Ann Arbor. His international renown as a thyroid surgeon was confirmed when a President of the College chose him to operate on him for his Graves' disease. He attracted a large private practice based on Nuffield House, with many patients coming from overseas, in particular the Shah's Persia. He assisted at Sir Anthony Eden's cholecystectomy and, though the last survivor of the team, never divulged a detail from the operation. His writing, whether in short letters to his friends, or in more formal compositions such as the textbook which he wrote jointly with Rex Lawrie, was distinguished by its clarity, and was often embellished by references from Shakespeare or Lewis Carroll. He was civilian consultant to the Army from 1967 to 1976, and was honoured to revise jointly with Major General Kirby that most useful guide *The Field Surgery Pocket Book*, which he prefaced with the words 'in the hope it will never be needed'. He gave years of service to the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland as Secretary, becoming its President in 1964. Due to his forthright views and wit he was a popular speaker. He gave many lectures, including the Presidential Address to the Medical Society of London in 1962, the Mitchiner Lecture to the Royal Army Medical College and the Presidential Address to the Military Surgical Society, of which he was a founder member. He recalled Philip Mitchiner as 'never seeking the bubble reputation' but ever 'in the cannon's mouth'. The description is apposite to Guy. In his 1984 swansong review of surgery he concluded 'not that the old order changeth, but that it has vanished almost without trace'. He long had a deep regard for the City of London, of which he was a Freeman, and it gave him great pleasure when he was elected Master of the Apothecaries in 1980-81. After retirement from his hospital post in 1976 he carried on teaching as an honorary member of the Professorial Unit. He was a member of the Court of Examiners from 1962 to 1968 and also examined at the Universities of Cambridge and London. Unfairly he carried the reputation of being a harsh examiner, but in practice he appreciated clear thought, courage, and the evidence of some clinical experience. He regretted his failure to be elected to Council. He was an ebullient and gregarious man, never happier than as a generous host either at the Garrick or at his spacious home on Highgate Hill, overlooking the City. In later life he derived great pleasure from racing - equally at Royal Ascot or an informal Saturday meeting at Newbury. The tragic death of his son Jonathan from his first marriage, which was dissolved in 1946, saddened his last months. In 1953 he married Joan, née Bowen, assistant Matron at Guy's Hospital, and they had a daughter, Ann. (When his own staff married he used to present a carving set 'to get to the heart of the marriage'!) When he developed Parkinson's Disease Joan nursed him through increasing paralysis with love and skill. He died on 2 May 1995, survived by his wife, daughter, grandson Bertie and granddaughter Amber.