George Watts was a general surgeon at Birmingham General Hospital. He was born on 20 February 1923 in Walsall, Staffordshire, the son of George Watts, a tax inspector, and Helen Watts. He attended King Edward’s Grammar School Birmingham, where he was awarded a foundation scholarship, and then he was awarded a state scholarship to study medicine at Birmingham. After graduation, he was conscripted and sent to Malaya, where he was at odds with the commanding officer as, with colleagues, he used to perform minor surgical procedures on the local population! He was then transferred to Hong Kong. He retained a love for the east and the exotic throughout his life and could recite the *Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam* verbatim as well as many of the Stanley Holloway monologues and even authored a book of children’s stories along the lines of 1,001 nights. He trained in surgery in the west Midlands and in 1957 spent a year in the USA at the Massachusetts General Hospital as a Frank Barnes travelling fellow. Here, he studied wound healing, and this remained an ongoing interest throughout his career. On his return to the UK, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at Birmingham General Hospital. He developed a very broad practice in surgery, but with an individualistic approach, which, despite being considered unconventional by most, eventually proved prophetic. For example, he avoided the use of ‘unnecessary’ wound drains. He insisted on early enteral feeding after abdominal surgery, including major resections, despite the fact that anastomoses were all performed with catgut. He practised early breast reconstruction after cancer surgery and kept all his breast patients in a correctly sized brassiere for 10 days post operatively, to provide support and shape to the healing wounds. Moreover, all his sutured superficial wounds were dressed with gold leaf, utilising the anti-microbial effect of precious metals, pre-dating the more modern commercial introduction of silver-impregnated dressings. This had a particular positive psychological effect on patients, especially those undergoing breast surgeries, and was also cheaper than the standard sterilised dressings of the day. He was truly ahead of his time, carrying the lessons learned from his time in research in the USA to his routine consultant practice in the UK. He became so busy with work that at one stage his wife Nora suggested increasing his private practice fees in the hope this would reduce his workload, however, this merely had the effect of attracting more patients than ever! George was a most generous host and was very pleased when he was able provide dinner at his home for his fellow members of the Moynihan Chirurgical Society when he was well into his retirement. He kept a set of champagne glasses in the theatre at the General Hospital and a chilled bottle in the fridge, so that he could reward his staff at the end of a long operating day. Outside surgery, he had wide interests, being a skilled silversmith with his own hallmark, a jewellery maker, artist, author and an accomplished fisherman. Nora died in 2005, but despite his failing health, he stubbornly insisted on staying on alone in the family home until his final illness. George died on 5 October 2021 at the age of 98, bringing to an end the older generation from the halcyon days of Birmingham General Hospital. In his lifetime, he had seen major changes in health care, including the advent of antibiotics, the birth of the National Health Service and a revolution in almost all aspects of surgery, both in terms of technical improvements as well advances in the understanding of disease. He was survived by three sons, two of whom became doctors and one a veterinary surgeon, nine grandchildren, one of whom is a doctor, and one great granddaughter.