Peter Catts was a general surgeon in New South Wales, Australia. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales on 12 April 1940, the son of Stanley Victor Catts and Vera Jean Catts née Reynolds. He went to the UK for surgical training and gained his FRCS in 1967. He then returned to Australia, where he was in private practice in New South Wales from 1971 to 2001. He was chairman of the New South Wales committee of the Australian Association of Surgeons. He wrote *How to knife the surgeons: the life and times of a crusading surgeon – a memoir* (Healthy Lifestyle Publishing), published in 2014. He was married to Robyn. They had seven children – David (who predeceased him), Paul, Michael, Kate, Alexander, Nicola and Lucas – and two grandchildren, Jamison and Sebastian. Peter Catts was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme in February 2015 and died on 10 November of the same year. He was 75.