Elias Michael Lasserson was a general practitioner in Mitcham, London. He was born in Manchester in 1932, the son of Ernest Lasserson, a musician who later trained as a doctor and became a general practitioner, and Doris Lasserson née Cohen, a piano teacher. His uncle Sascha studied the violin in St Petersburg and became an esteemed violin teacher; Lasserson’s book about his life (*Sascha Lasserson: portrait of a teacher: reminiscences of Sascha by his pupils* London, Kahn and Averill) was published in 2005. Lasserson studied dentistry at Guy’s and graduated in 1958. He was a registrar in dental surgery at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and gained his fellowship of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1965. With the intention of becoming an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, he then studied medicine at Charing Cross Hospital and qualified as a doctor in 1969. After pre-registration house officer appointments at High Wycombe Hospital and senior house officer posts in paediatrics and obstetrics and gynaecology at St Mary’s Hospital, Portsmouth, he decided to become a general practitioner at a practice in Mitcham. He gained his membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1978 and became a fellow in 1999. Following his retirement in 1997 he continued until 2009 as a visiting physician to the Nightingale House, Wandsworth, formerly the Home for Aged Jews. In 2007 he was president of the general practice with primary healthcare section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was editor of *The Writer*, the journal of the Society of Medical Writers and *London Calling*, the Royal College of General Practitioners’ newsletter for the northeast and south London faculties. He had a lifelong passion for music and played the double pass to a professional standard. In 2004, he co-founded the European Doctors’ Orchestra, which holds twice yearly concerts in London and other European cities. In 1966 he married Nadia Grindea, a professional pianist who had studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Lasserson died on 25 July 2011. He was survived by his widow and their three children (Rachel, David and Ben) and five grandchildren.