Cyril Thomas (Tom) Collins was a consultant surgeon at the Wellington Hospital. Born on 28 April 1915 in Auckland, he was the son of Cyril George Collins and Mary Theresa Collins née O’Connor, the daughter of a building contractor. Both his father and grandfather became the Auditor-General of New Zealand. In Auckland he attended Remvera Convent and the Sacred Heart College before moving to St Patrick’s College, Silverstream, Upper Hutt. After a time at Victoria University, Wellington, he studied medicine at the University of Otago Medical School. He was house surgeon at the Wellington Hospital from 1940 until the following year when he joined the Australian Air Force and served as a squadron leader up to 1945. He passed the fellowship in 1948 and the fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1952. Among the surgeons who influenced him he listed, David White, Eardly Button, Gordon Gordon Taylor and R O’Regan. At the Royal Australasian College he served as chairman’s deputy of the Court of Examiners and he was also president of the Cancer Society of New Zealand. He enjoyed playing golf, gardening, fishing and watching rugby. In 1946 he married Moiya Betty née Ward who was known as ‘Molly’. They had four children; one son became a doctor, one an accountant and the other obtained a doctorate in philosophy. Their daughter qualified as a nurse. Molly predeceased him, dying on 30 May 1992 at the age of 77 and he died in Wellington on 8 November 2004 aged 89.