'Sam' Mitchell was a consultant general surgeon in Swansea. He was born in Aberystwyth on 30 May 1926, where his father, Samuel, and mother, Doris née Finlay, were school teachers. He was educated at the County School in Aberystwyth and Cardiff University. His junior posts were on the professorial unit in Cardiff, the Royal Hospital Sheffield, the Brompton and Royal Masonic Hospitals. He was a registrar at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, and senior registrar at the Westminster. He did his National Service in the RAMC. He was appointed consultant general surgeon to Singleton and Moriston Hospitals in Swansea in 1966, and set about modernising the department and improving the surgical training, leading to a formal rotation with Cardiff. His main interest was in colorectal surgery. Sam served the College as surgical tutor and was a member of the Court of Examiners. His hobbies included fishing, sailing, golf and skiing. In 1989, he retired to Hampshire to fish and be nearer to his growing family. He married Philippa Martin, a general practitioner, whose parents were surgeons and had been Hunterian Professors. They had five children, of whom one son, David, became a consultant vascular surgeon at the Southmead Hospital in Bristol. Sam died of acute gallstone pancreatitis on 23 November 2002.