Sir Randal Elliott was an eminent New Zealand eye surgeon. He was the youngest member of a distinguished medical family. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, he was the son of Sir James Sands Elliott, a prominent GP-surgeon who edited the *New Zealand Medical Journal* for over 20 years, and Annie Allan Elliott née Forbes. His two older brothers, James Kennedy, an orthopaedic surgeon, and Robert Allan, an otolaryngologist, had worthy military records in the Second World War. He grew up in Wellington, attending St Mark's School, then went as a boarder to Hereworth School in Hawke's Bay and to Wanganui Collegiate School. He did his medical intermediate year at Victoria University in Wellington, completing his course at the University of Otago Medical School in Dunedin. It was there that I first met him, when we were both involved in a student revue (the Capping Concert), presenting a comedy about a meeting of the Big Three at a mythical oasis where he, as Peter Fraser, the New Zealand prime minister, addressed the world leaders on their responsibilities. Now Fraser had been a patient and old friend of his father's, so Randal knew him well enough to provide a convincing likeness - for the whole week of the concert he did this, riding his noisy smoky motorcycle on to the stage to deliver his lines. After his houseman years at Wellington Hospital, and shortly after marrying a nurse, Pauline Young (who bore him a son and six daughters), Randal made what was then the customary pilgrimage to Britain, where he was a resident surgical officer at Moorfields, and then a registrar at University College and the London hospitals. In 1953 he returned to New Zealand as a part-time consultant at Wellington Hospital. He also practised privately as a neighbour of his older brothers on The Terrace in central Wellington. At the same time, he served in the active reserve of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, undertaking tours of duty to the Pacific, Sarawak, Sabah, Malaya, Thailand and Vietnam in the period 1953 to 1977, and retiring with the rank of group captain. He was honorary surgeon to no fewer than three governors-general, and an honorary surgeon to The Queen in 1964. He served terms as chairman of the eye department of Wellington Hospital (from 1965 to 1970), of the combined staff (from 1972 to 1974) and of the eye department of the new clinical school (from 1974 to 1976). But his interests spread much wider than that: he was an adviser in ophthalmology to the New Zealand Ministries of Health, Civil Aviation and Transport. His advice was widely sought, and willingly given. He had a year as president of Wellington Medico-Legal Society, a period as a member of the Traffic Accident Research Foundation and a year as chairman of the Road Safety Trust. He was an examiner for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and a guest lecturer at the universities of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. In his own special field he served on the executive of Ophthalmological Society of New Zealand (from 1960 to 1965) and was its president in 1973. His contribution to medico-political matters was notable. In the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association, then undergoing quite severe growing pains and name changes, he was a member of the executive council from 1965, then deputy chairman (through a name change) until 1970 and finally chairman of the council from 1971 to 1973. He then chaired the central ethics committee, while remaining on the executive. Not surprisingly, his service was recognised with an OBE in 1975, followed two years later by elevation to a knighthood in the Order, in the year of his presidency of the - by now - New Zealand Medical Association. Now all these commitments - and there were others as well - might create the impression of a man frantically active in his good works, but Randal's style was unhurried, his speech always concise to the point of being almost brusque. In one field he was totally committed: his father had reached the highest rank in the Order of St John, and Randal gave generously of his time and zeal, as principal medical officer in the New Zealand Priory, subsequently as chancellor and then as hospitaller; while in the Order at large he served (from 1988 to 1989) as warden and senior surgeon at the Hospital of the Order of St John in Jerusalem. Like his father he reached the highest rank - bailiff grand cross. What is more, so much devotion to professional and related matters might suggest a man of the meeting room, but Randal was equally at home in outdoor pursuits. He listed his recreations as yachting, ski-mountaineering, tramping, kayaking and fishing. And when he and his two older brothers sailed in the yacht *Wakarere*, which they jointly owned, the vessel was in a constant state of mutiny. Randal Elliott was, in Doctor Johnson's term, a clubbable man. Always abstemious, he was a highly respected president of the Wellington Club (from 1986 to 1990), the opening of the new clubhouse, by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, bringing his term to a fitting climax. When, five years later, I was commissioned to write the history of the club, I persuaded Randal to be one of my literary referees. His response to the several chapters of material I sent him was always encouraging and commonly spiced with some anecdote, carefully printed in capital letters and suitable to enliven the events under discussion. Quite severe deafness and the onset of Parkinsonism, robbed his final years of the best of the human contact he had so enjoyed, and Pauline's death was a severe blow to him, but he is remembered with a blend of affection and something approaching awe. He died on 20 July 2010, aged 87.