James Kyle was a consultant general surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and a senior lecturer at Aberdeen University and later chairman of Raigmore Hospital NHS Trust in Inverness. He was born in Ballymena, County Antrim on 26 March 1925 to John Kyle and Dorothy Frances Kyle née Skillen. His father owned a large insurance brokers business and was very involved in the running of the Antrim Agricultural Show. His mother enthused James with her knowledge of literature and the arts; his maternal grandfather inspired a love of history, and two uncles inspired his lifelong passion for philately. James attended Ballymena Academy. During the Second World War, in his late teens, he was an air raid warden in Belfast, which was heavily bombed due to the presence of the Harland and Wolff shipbuilders. James studied medicine at Queen’s University, Belfast, graduating in 1947 with a gold medal. He did his elective in 1946 in northern Sweden and could still speak Swedish into his nineties. After qualifying, he worked with Harold Rogers at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast; Rogers guided him into the world of research and was a significant influence on his career. In 1950, following his marriage to Dorothy Galbraith, a teacher, he took a clinical research post at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota. Although asked to stay on, he chose to return to the UK, disliking the materialistic attitude to medicine in the USA. In 1952 James returned to work at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast as a tutor in surgery and gained his fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in Ireland and of England in 1954. He received his MCh with a gold medal in 1956. He then left Northern Ireland but kept his love of Ulster and retained his memory of an idyllic childhood spent in the Glens of Antrim and its coast. County Antrim was the place where his heart belonged. In 1957 he became a lecturer in surgery in Liverpool, under Charles Wells. He then took up a senior lecturer in surgery and a consultant post at Aberdeen University and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. James became interested in Crohn’s disease as a student. He realised that the demographics of northeast Scotland would be suitable for a long-term clinical study into Crohn’s and established this study in Aberdeenshire, Orkney and Shetland, 914 cases in all. These were followed up for 30 years, resulting in many publications and books. He said his colleagues were ‘only too happy to hand over these people with this terrible disease’ for his care and research. He liaised with and met Burrill Bernard Crohn, who wrote the forward for James’ book on Crohn’s disease (*Crohn’s disease* London, Heinemann Medical Books, 1972). However, James believed it was actually a Scottish surgeon and pathologist, Sir Thomas Kennedy Dalziel, who had first described the disease he called ‘chronic interstitial enteritis’. Dalziel gave an address, accompanied by a demonstration of specimens, to the BMA annual meeting in Brighton in July 1913, realising he was describing a new condition. As the First World War broke out the following year, the condition was lost sight of for another 20 years, until 1932 in the USA when Crohn made his discoveries. James Kyle published the history of this in the *British Medical Journal* in 1979 and often himself referred to Dalziel’s disease, rather than Crohn’s disease (‘Dalziel’s disease – 66 years on’ *Br Med J* 1979;1:876). In the 1964 typhoid epidemic in Aberdeen, James became the designated surgeon for any interventions required, carrying out daily ward rounds with Ian MacQueen (the medical officer of health), who quickly placed Aberdeenshire under strict restrictions. James gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1964 and his DSc in 1972. As a clinician, James, affectionately known as ‘JK’, was a quiet, caring surgeon with ‘a good pair of hands’, always considering the needs of his patients and the wider needs of their families. His kindness and guidance to junior staff, and his courtesy to nursing and other ancillary staff earned him great respect. He was insightful, a good listener and a champion of the vulnerable. James enjoyed the process of writing and wrote prodigiously. James became increasingly involved in medical politics and the BMA, initially debating in the 1970s with the Labour secretary of state for health and social services, Barbara Castle, around the thorny question of private beds in NHS hospitals. He himself never practised private medicine. He campaigned for an increase in consultants’ salaries at this time (1972 to 1973), when their pay was not keeping up with inflation. James was regarded as an excellent chairperson, always knowledgeable about his subject, decisive but fair and sensitive, but could see through what he termed as ‘skulduggery’ with a sharp insight. He was a member of the General Medical Council from 1979 to 1994, chairman of the Scottish Committee for Hospital Medical Services from 1977 to 1981, of the Scottish Joint Consultants’ committee from 1984 to 1989 and chairman of the representative body of the BMA from 1984 to 1987. This was a tumultuous time when the BMA was vehemently opposing the Conservative Party in its quest to radically restructure the NHS by introducing market forces. Although the BMA was defeated, they were applauded for their defence of the principles of the NHS. This period also saw the emergence of AIDS and the BMA was instrumental in influencing how the medical profession responded, particularly around the ethics of testing, confidentiality and the design of the public awareness campaigns. James was a British Council lecturer in South East Asia and South America from 1963 to 1974. He was an external surgical examiner in surgery in Belfast, Dundee, Edinburgh, Sydney and the West Indies and lectured widely on surgery throughout the world, from Iran, China, India, South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Egypt, South Africa, Grenada, South America, Eastern Europe to Russia. He retired from clinical work in 1989. He was president of the Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society in its bicentenary year 1989 to 1990, chairman of the Grampian Health Board from 1989 to 1993 and of the Raigmore Hospital NHS Trust in Inverness from 1993 to 1997. At Raigmore he pioneered the construction of accommodation for families and patients receiving treatment as the hospital covered an extensive geographical area, named Kyle Court in his honour. He received a CBE in 1989 for services to medicine and was made a burgess of Aberdeen in 1990. He and Dorothy relocated in retirement to the beautiful area of Gairloch, Wester Ross, northwest Scotland. James had many interests outside medicine. He was keen on sport, although not in a particularly competitive way. He played tennis, swam and skied and had been in his school cricket and rugby teams. In retirement, he loved to swim in the Atlantic Ocean as often as possible from April until November. (In Aberdeen he swam with other medics in the North Sea throughout the year!) He swam in the sea until he was 92 and passed onto his family the delight of what is now known as ‘wild swimming’. He also enjoyed hill walking and many weekends were spent hiking up the Scottish mountains with his family or the Aberdeen medics walking group. He was a polymath. In retirement he studied for degrees in astronomy and Scottish archaeology. Huge energy was put into his main interest, philately, and he built up a renowned stamp collection, with a particular interest in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, the Cayman Islands and St Helena. He wrote numerous articles for *Gibbons Stamp Monthly* and researched extensively the postal history, history, geography, industries and natural habitat of these islands. His other hobby from boyhood was being a radio ham. It culminated in him receiving the Scottish Island radio ham trophy – awarded for broadcasting from all the northern Scottish islands, including those which were uninhabited! He was a volunteer for the War Memorials Trust and documented all the war memorials of northern Scotland, as well as publishing articles about them. He loved history and read extensively. He loved poetry and literature and could recite large lines of both. He was a patron of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He adored opera, and whilst with the BMA and GMC would frequently attend the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden after a fraught day! Having travelled much of the world, he had a wealth of knowledge and understanding of countries and cultures and their histories, having always read up in great detail about his destinations. He enjoyed travel and adventure and had many hair-raising stories to tell of his escapades! In character James was a quiet person, a private and humble man. He was a generous and caring man with a big heart. He was profound and wise and a good listener. Although quiet, he had a great sense of humour and a sharp wit. He died, at the age of 98, on 12 September 2023, after a life well lived. Predeceased by his wife Dorothy, he was survived by their two daughters, Frances and Maureen.