Stuart Winsey was born on 15 August 1932 in East Boldre, Hampshire. His father, Geoffrey Cherrett Winsey, was a farmer and his mother, Mary, née Cawdery, a governess. He was educated at Peter Symond's School, Winchester, after which he spent two years of National Service in the RAMC as a corporal. He then became a medical student at Queen Mary College, London, and the London Hospital Medical College, where he qualified MB BS in 1959. After junior appointments at the London Hospital and King George V Hospital in Ilford, his surgical training commenced in 1961 with posts in Richmond and Tilbury, during which time he obtained the FRCS. In 1964 he was appointed surgical registrar in Aberdeen and in July 1966 was a Harvard Fellow at the Boston City Hospital, where he worked in the Sears Laboratory under Dr Judah Folkman. His research led to several publications with Dr Folkman concerning culture of human leukaemia, the behaviour of gases in *in vitro* conditions, and experimental perfusion of the thymus. In 1967 Winsey was appointed to the post of senior registrar in Dundee. In 1970 he again went abroad for further experience by spending three months with Professor Mathe working on an experimental tumour model to study the effects of chemotherapy and immunotherapy in combination with surgery. In 1971 he was appointed consultant general surgeon to Singleton Hospital, Swansea. With time, he was able to develop his interest in oesophageal disease and, true to his belief that travel broadens the mind, he went to Nashville and Atlanta in 1983 to study their methods and also visited Professor Trede in Mannheim (Swansea's twin city) to set up a link between the gastro-oesophageal units in their respective hospitals which is still active today. This association also led to a stream of German medical students and doctors visiting Swansea. Winsey was a man of many facets. He taught himself to play the double bass and the tuba, and as a medical student was the tuba and bass player in Acker Bilk's band the *Storyville Jazzmen* for some time. He held a mildly idiosyncratic view of life - hating cars but loving travel, especially with the Welsh Surgical Travelling Club, of which he was a founder member. He was also a fine golfer, being captain of the Pennard Golf Club in the Gower, as well as winning the golf competition of the Association of Surgeons one year. Unhappily, Stuart Winsey developed an anaplastic carcinoma of the parietal pleura from an unknown primary source and died on 3 November 1992. He was survived by his wife, Audrey, née Morgan, a doctor whom he married on 19 May 1962, as well as his children Catherine and Graham.