Emerich Polak received his medical training in Prague and qualified in 1925. He continued his surgical training under Professor Rudolf Jedlicka and his first contact with English surgery was in 1926 when the Moynihan Travelling Club visited Prague. For forty years he directed an important surgical department developing a wide interest in surgery, particularly thoracic surgery, peptic ulceration and the pancreas. He contributed much to surgical publications and, in 1934, published a monograph on blood transfusion which introduced this new treatment to Czechoslovakia. Outside surgery, apart from entomology and botany, his chief interest was music. He was an accomplished violinist and played both classical and modern music. He was awarded the Honorary Fellowship on 9 July 1975; the citation was delivered by Ronald Raven and the President, Sir Rodney Smith, pointed out that he had first met Professor Polak in the garden where Mozart stayed when he was composing *Don Giovanni*. He died on 27 August 1980.