Victor Anomah Ngu was head of surgery at the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon, a minister of public health and a founder of the West African College of Surgeons. He was born in Molyko, Buea, Cameroon on 1 February 1926. His father, Nazarius Ngu, was a catechist; his mother Monica Ngu née Siri was the daughter of a farmer. He was initially educated at Sasse, south-western Cameroon (then part of Nigeria) and later transferred to the Government College, Ibadan, where he completed his secondary education. In 1948, he was admitted as one of 12 foundation medical students at the newly-established University College of Ibadan and completed his undergraduate medical training at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London. He qualified in 1954 with prizes in pathology. In 1958, he became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1959. In 1962, he completed a masters’ degree in surgery. From 1957 to 1958 he was a surgical registrar at University College Hospital, Ibadan and from 1958 to 1959 a registrar in the UK at Paddington General Hospital. On his return to Africa by sea in 1959, he discussed the idea of founding a forum for surgeons working in West Africa with an Irish colleague, Charles Bowesman. In April 1960, Ngu travelled along the West African coast canvassing the idea of forming what would become the Association of Surgeons of West Africa (ASWA), meeting up with Emmanuel Evans-Anfom, Nicholas de Heer, Charles Easmon and Emmanuel Badoe, among others, during the trip. The idea met with an enthusiastic response and the inaugural meeting of the ASWA was held in Ibadan in December 1960. Ngu was appointed as the first honorary secretary under the presidency of Sir Samuel L A Manuwa. In 1969, the ASWA became a training organisation and a college in 1973. Ngu was the sixth president of the Association. On his return to Africa, Ngu became a senior registrar at the University College, Ibadan in 1960, a lecturer in 1962 and was professor of surgery there from 1965 to 1971. During the Nigerian Civil War (1967 to 1970) he served as a colonel. He subsequently returned to Cameroon, where he was professor and head of surgery at the newly-established centre for health sciences, University of Yaoundé from 1971 to 1974. He was vice chancellor of the University of Yaoundé from 1974 to 1982, director general of Scientific and Technical Research, Cameroon from 1982 to 1984 and minister of public health from 1984 to 1988. He was director of the Cancer Research Laboratory from 1984 to 1991 and pro-chancellor of the University of Buea from 1993 to 2004. He researched into Burkitt’s lymphoma, cancer immunotherapy, fever thermodynamics, chronic infections and the role of viruses in the causation of cancer. The last two decades of his life were focused on HIV. He was a founding member and president of the Nigerian Cancer Society, president of the Association of African Universities, a member of WHO and UNICEF advisory committees and president of the Bernard Fonlon Society. Among many awards, prizes and honours, he was presented with the Albert Lasker award in clinical cancer chemotherapy in 1972, the Dr Samuel Lawrence Adesuyi award and medal by the West African Health Community in 1989 and the Leon H Sullivan achievement award in the United States in 2003. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary fellowship of the South African College of Surgeons, the first black man to be so honoured. In 2000, the West African College of Surgeons established a lecture in his honour: the Professor Victor Anomah Ngu lecture is awarded to younger fellows of the College to showcase their research work. Outside medicine, he enjoyed tennis, music and reading. In 1960, he married Clara Ugbodaga. Predeceased by his wife, Victor Anomah Ngu died on 14 June 2011 at the age of 85 and was survived by their daughter, three sons and five grandchildren.