Ian Cast was a versatile and dedicated neurosurgeon. He was born in Gidea Park, Romford, Essex, the younger son of John David Cast, an executive officer with the Port of London Authority, and Doris Eliza Cast née Bones. Ian was educated at St Mary's High School, Romford, Gidea Park Preparatory Sc

Valentine Logue was one of the most distinguished neurosurgeons of his generation. He will be remembered principally for his determined advocacy of the place of research in the training of young neurosurgeons. He was himself a meticulous and careful surgeon, notable not only for his superb operative

Douglas Phillips (or Dougie to those fortunate enough to be close to him) was a consultant neurosurgeon and surgeon in charge of the regional neurosurgical unit in Bristol. He was born in New Zealand on 6 May 1912 in Kumara, Westland and obtained his MB ChB in 1935. His house officer appointments we

Brian Patrick Gardner was born in Fort Jameson, Zambia on 17 July 1948. He was the first son, and third child, of Trevelyn Codrington Gardner CBE and his wife Briege Therese née Feehan. His father was a distinguished Colonial administrator who went on to have a second career in university administra

Arthur Norman Guthkelch was born in Woodford Green, East London and educated at Christ's Hospital School, Horsham. At first, because of his love of animals, he aimed to become a vet but when his mother enquired if people were not more important he decided to study medicine instead. He won a scholars

Robin Geoffrey Rushworth was a neurosurgeon at the Royal North Shore Hospital, New South Wales. Born on 12 August 1927, it is not known where he studied medicine. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1955 and returned to Australia to live in St Ives, New South Wales. He died on 21 July 2017 ag

Peter Wilson was a meticulous neurosurgeon at Swansea who was committed to the highest standards of clinical care and fostered the same work ethic in his colleagues. He was born in Portsmouth on 8 April in 1933, the elder son of Herbert Wilson and Kathleen Wilson née Humphries. His father was an

Michael Rees Gooding was born on 11 January 1935. He studied medicine at London University, trained at the Royal Free Hospital and graduated MB, BS in 1959. He spent time researching neurosurgery at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital and at Queen Square in London and in the USA at the University of Californ

John Miles was a professor of neurosurgery at the Walton Centre, Liverpool. He was born in Mountain Ash, a mining village in south Wales, on 30 May 1936, one of five children of Benjamin Miles and Helena Miles née Owen. His father, a miner and a socialist, was blacklisted by mine owners and unemploy

Professor Jacquez Charl ‘Kay’ De Villiers was head of the department of neurosurgery at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. This is a draft obituary. If you have any information about this surgeon or are interested in writing this obituary, please email lives@rcseng.ac.uk

‘You can teach a monkey to operate, but you can’t teach a monkey when not to operate.’ Many, especially on the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies’ training courses, will remember John Garfield’s pithy one-liners. That was the epitome of John – serious, but everything had to be fun and w

Mike Briggs was a consultant neurosurgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. He grew up in Norfolk and won a scholarship to Norwich School. Because of wartime damage to the school, they were unable to teach science subjects, so Mike had a classical schooling, but it never seemed to put him off. A