Brian Pickering studied medicine at Guy's Hospital where he qualified in 1956. After junior surgical posts he specialised in cardiothoracic surgery, doing the rotation between the Middlesex, Hammersmith and Harefield Hospitals and the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. He was appointed consultant surgeon at Harefield and Colindale Hospitals, but then went to Plymouth as a consultant thoracic surgeon. He was civil consultant surgeon to the Royal Navy. He wrote extensively on the surgery of acute myocardial infarction. He died in Torquay on 20 May 2002.