Henry John ‘Harry’ Espiner was a consultant general surgeon in Bristol who performed some of the earliest laparoscopic surgeries in the UK and developed the Espiner bag, used in keyhole operations. Originally from New Zealand, he was born on 29 January 1932. He studied medicine at Otago University, qualified in 1955 and held posts at Christchurch Hospital, including as a surgical registrar. In the late 1950s he went to the UK for further training, where he worked for Reginald Murley at St Albans and then as a surgical research fellow in Robert Milnes Walker’s university department of surgery at Bristol, investigating regional chemotherapy for head and neck cancer. He was awarded the Moynihan prize of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1963. He did further surgical training in Bristol and in hospitals in the southwest. In 1968 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Southmead Hospital. With others, he initiated a study of the harmful effects of starch powder used in surgical gloves to make them easier to put on: he found a small number of patients developed a sensitivity to the starch during their recovery, resulting in abdominal pain (‘Hazards of surgical glove powders’ *Br Med J*. 1980 Nov 29;281[6253]:1493-4). Espiner stressed the need to develop a powder free glove and was a member of the panel of surgeons testing and trialling gloves made by the London Rubber Company. The newly developed latex gloves were widely adopted. Realising the potential of keyhole surgery for gallbladder removal, Espiner organised a sabbatical to the United States to learn the method and gain experience. Early on it was realised that during surgery the gallbladder might rupture during extraction through the small incision in the abdomen wall, spilling the contents into the wound or back into the abdomen. Espiner went on to design a bag in which the gallbladder could be placed before extraction, containing any potential spillage. As keyhole surgery developed, different bags were produced to hold a range of organs. Espiner formed a company Espiner Medical to develop the sacs. While working in Exeter, Espiner met Antonia ‘Toni’ Buncher, a South African nursing sister. They married in 1964, and had five children, Joanna, Claire, Mark, Tom and Charlotte. Predeceased by his wife in August 2019, Espiner died on 16 February 2020. He was 88.