Ian Hector Stewart was born on 16th May 1937 in Perth, Western Australia. He was the eldest of the three sons of Sir Hector Hamilton Stewart and his wife Winifred Wheatley née Viotti, a farmer’s daughter. Sir Hector was a fellow of the college, a distinguished surgeon and public servant. After attending Redlands School and Scotch College, Ian studied medicine at the Universities of Western Australia and Adelaide. At the Freemantle Hospital in Western Australia he worked as a registrar before joining the flying doctor service. In 1969 he passed the fellowship of the college and was appointed a consultant general surgeon. He married Jennifer Manford in 1963 and they had three daughters, Caroline, Melanie and Pamela. Outside medicine he was a keen yachtsman. He died on 12 October 2018 aged 81.