Timothy Gledhill was born in Yorkshire in 1953. When he was about two years of age the family moved to Blackpool where he was educated at Arnold School and received a Duke of Edinburgh gold award in 1969. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and graduated in 1975 before taking resident appointments at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and at Kircaldy. After a pathology appointment at Edinburgh his surgical training continued at St Bartholomew's Hospital and at Haslar Hospital, Portsmouth. Having developed a special interest in gastroenterology, he went on to do research both in the United Kingdom and at McMaster University, Canada. He was then appointed senior surgical registrar at Leeds where he won the gold medal for the best paper presented at the Leeds Regional Surgical Society's meeting in 1987. He secured the final Fellowship and a mastership in surgery and was a popular and hardworking member of his surgical teams. He lead a full life outside his hospital work and was an enthusiastic and accomplished sailor, a passion which he shared with his wife. Early in 1988, he was successful in securing a consultant surgical appointment at Chichester; but, very sadly, he died aged 35 years on 9 April 1988, in a sailing accident at Whitby. He was survived by his wife, Ann, who is a pathologist, and by their daughter, Imogen.