Hubert de Castella was a consultant general surgeon in Burton-on-Trent. He was born in Melbourne, Australia, the son of Francois Robert de Castella, a viticulturalist for the Victorian government, and Yvonne de Castella née Sylvestre, a nurse. His grandfather, Charles Hubert de Castella, originally a Swiss national, was a prominent winemaker, writer and artist. After attending St Kevin’s College, Melbourne, Hubert went on to study medicine at the University of Melbourne, qualifying in 1953. In 1954 he took a post as a junior doctor at Launceston General Hospital in Tasmania. In the mid-1950s he travelled to Europe. He trained as surgeon at St Mary’s, London and worked at various other hospitals across the UK, including at Southampton. He gained his FRCS in 1961. He also practised as a doctor in Georgetown, Washington DC, Vietnam – for the International Red Cross during the war – and Trinidad. In 1968 he accepted a post in New York at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, however, in the meantime he had picked up a bad case of tuberculosis, requiring several months recuperation in hospital, and had to delay his start date while he recovered. This convalescence proved serendipitous. He met Jill (Macrae) at a party and, in April 1969, three days before he moved to the US, they got married. Hubert was 40 years old. When they had their first child, they moved back to the UK. After nine short-term medical roles in a year, in 1971 he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at Burton, with a sub-specialty interest in gastrointestinal surgery. They settled at Cedar House, Newton Solney and had three more children. Early in his career at Burton he helped his colleague Irvine Smith set up the graduate centre, a building at Burton District Hospital with a lecture theatre, medical library and meeting rooms. It drew GPs and junior doctors into further education and gave them a space to discuss interesting or difficult cases. It was such a success that it expanded over the years. It is now called the Queen’s Hospital Education Centre. He was an active member of the West Midlands Surgical Society and the district management team, which oversaw the running of the District Hospital. And when Burton General Hospital closed, he was heavily involved in moving it to the District Hospital when it enlarged to become the Queen’s Hospital, Burton. He also did private practice at Ashby. In 1993 Hubert retired. For the next few years, he did medical appeals tribunals in Chesterfield and Nottingham. At the same time, he did an art foundation course at De Montfort University followed by a fine art degree at Loughborough University. Later he studied printmaking. He was also a keen skier, runner and wild swimmer before the term was used. And when his sons were young, he took them to watch football at Nottingham Forest, an allegiance they have continued ever since. In retirement he was modest about his career, writing on his LinkedIn page: ‘Journeyman surgeon, Buston-on-Trent (1971-93)’. His bio concluded: ‘Aspirant printmaker, seeker after knowledge 1994-’. Hubert died on 17 June 1922 at the age of 93. He was survived by Jill, their four children Clare, Sophie, Tom and Ben, and nine grandchildren in England and Australia.