Alex Brown was a consultant surgeon at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. He was born on 26 January 1919. His father, A Brown, was head of the department of applied mathematics at the University of Cape Town. His mother, Mary Graham, had been the first female graduate at Rhodes University. Alex studied medicine at the University of Cape Town, where he won the Thackeray prize for surgery. After junior posts at Groote Schuur, he joined the South African Air Force as a medical officer, and from 1943 to 1945 was stationed in the Western Desert and in Italy. After the war he went to London for surgical training, and was resident surgical officer at St Mark's under Lloyd Davies and Naughton Morgan. On returning to Cape Town, he became honorary surgeon to Groote Schuur Hospital, and was in charge of the colorectal clinic. He married his wife Diana Woodiniss (transcribed from mss cv form) in 1948. They had three daughters, Wendy (born 7 June 1950), Dianamay (transcribed from mss cv form) (born 28 April 1953) and Helen (born 17 November 1960) and one son, Robin (born 12 December 1951), who is a paediatric surgeon in Cape Town. He always kept up his contact with St Mark's and was in due time President of the St Mark's Association, returning to give the presidential address in London in 1972. He died on 1 July 1997.