Major General Anil Krishna Barat was head of the department of surgery at the Armed Forces Medical College, Poona. He was born in Krishnanagar, West Bengal, on 1 February 1915. His father, Sadananda Barat, was an administrator in the railway service; his mother was Anupama, the daughter of a lawyer. He was educated at EI Railway School, Jamalpur, Bihar and then studied intermediate science at the TNJ College, Bhagalpur, Bihar. He went on to study medicine at the RG Kar Medical College, Calcutta, where he was an outstanding student, winning prizes in anatomy, physiology, clinical medicine and pharmacology, and gaining the college gold medal in surgery in his final MB BS in April 1938. From 1940 to 1946, he served with the Indian Army in the Second World War. In 1943, he was a surgeon in a casualty clearing station on the frontline of the Burma front, and was awarded a Burma Star medal. In 1947, he was drafted to the frontline when Pakistan invaded India. He was given charge of mobile surgical units and worked in support of the troops fighting in the area of Naushera, Jhangar, Rajauri and Poonch. During this campaign, he worked single-handed, at time for days, until the last of the casualties were treated and cleared. During the recapture of Rajauri in 1948, there were very heavy casualties, some of whom could not be evacuated. Barat joined the troops and went forward through enemy lines from Naushera to Rajauri to give surgical treatment to the injured men under sustained fire. For this act of bravery, he was awarded the coveted Maha Vir Chakra. He later also took part in the 1965 and 1971 Indian-Pakistan conflicts, in the latter organising and supervising surgical cover. In the early 1950s he went to the UK to study for his FRCS, which he gained in 1953. In 1958, he joined the Armed Forces Medical College at Poona as an associate professor of surgery. Three years later, he became a professor and head of the department of surgery. At Poona, he was largely associated with the planning of the graduate wing, which opened in 1962. In 1969, he was appointed as a senior consultant in surgery for the Armed Forces, with responsibility for surgical cover and resources in the Army, Navy and Air Forces throughout India. He researched vascular anastomosis, forearm fractures, portal hypertension, experimental liver transplantation, recurrent and multiple renal calculi, cold injuries and experimental heart transplantation. Outside medicine, he enjoyed tennis and gardening. In 1941, he married Renuka. They had two sons, both of whom have taken up medicine as a profession.