Adrian Savage was a consultant general surgeon at Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley. He was born in London on 3 October 1952, the son of Paul Thwaites Savage, a consultant general surgeon at the Whittington Hospital and Anne Savage née Stutchbury, a general practitioner. He attended Highgate School with his two brothers, but only Adrian followed his parents’ footsteps into a career in medicine. He went up to St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1971, and he undertook his clinical training at the London Hospital, qualifying in 1977. After house jobs at Whipps Cross and the London, Adrian commenced surgical training in Bristol, before returning to London, as a registrar, at Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals. He undertook research in Stephen Bloom’s department measuring the effects of peptide YY on gastric emptying and gut transit times. In 1988 he obtained a senior registrar post in the Oxford region, fitting in a year in Ronald A Malt’s department of gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He became a consultant general surgeon at Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley, in 1994. As befitted his considerable experience, he initially undertook a wide range of gastrointestinal procedures, and he carefully recorded his excellent results with the Ivor Lewis procedure for resection of oesophageal carcinoma. Subsequently he supported the development of subspecialties, and he chose and then led the multidisciplinary colorectal team. He was totally committed to his patient’s care and fought his corner for them fiercely and fearlessly. As a result, he didn’t always get an easy ride through hospital life, but he wasn’t looking for that and he earned everyone’s respect, his team’s loyalty and his patient’s gratitude. He was an enthusiastic teacher both of undergraduates and surgical trainees and a proponent of audit. Sceptical of the quality of centralised hospital information sets, he collected and stored his own data. His audits of his department’s colorectal work were exemplary, but his audits of other general surgical procedures, and interdisciplinary interventions, were no less rigorous, and as a result, highly valued. Beyond the hospital, he led a very full life. In childhood he had acquired his father’s love of sailing, and it was as a result of a crewing ‘opportunity’ (involving running a small yacht aground on a mud bank and wading ashore to a local hostelry) that he and Caroline (Campion), a fellow medical student, became closely acquainted. They married in 1977, and their daughters Charlotte and Victoria were born in 1985 and 1988: a period of intense career development for both parents. Despite this, it is evident that the girls were in no way neglected. They in turn have happy memories of adventures with their parents, and, just as in Adrian’s own case, these often took place on the water, on Lake District fells and on Alpine ski slopes. Dudley is some way from the sea, and the family sailed on a small reservoir at Barnt Green. Adrian and Caroline successfully raced an Enterprise sailing dinghy. The girls became proficient sailors in their own turn, and Charlotte excelled in national and international events. She has followed her parents into medicine, whilst Vicky jumped ship, into a saddle, and eventually into a career in veterinary medicine. He was a knowledgeable and gifted musician and played the guitar. I think his preference was for jazz, blues and an electric guitar, but there again electronics was another of his ‘things’. Adrian retired in 2012, and he and Caroline moved to Offord D’Arcy, near St Neots, Cambridgeshire. When Caroline retired, they acquired *Starfish*, an elegant Scandinavian cruising yacht. From the east coast, and often with friends, they explored north, south and west: from Lands’ End to John O’Groats and well beyond. He also took up a post as an anatomy demonstrator at Cambridge University. In part there was genuine altruism: he understood the value of teaching, and that he could give something back to medicine in this way. But he also loved the challenge and process of teaching, and the interaction with fresh young minds. At home he kept his hands busy: with an old sports car frequently in need of high dependency care, and at an electronics bench, where he designed and built from scratch a very successful CNC (computer numerical control) wood milling machine. More recently he and Caroline became grandparents to Toby, Phoebe and Rupert: a great joy to all. In summer 2023, he developed dysphagia during a sailing trip. An apparently early oesophageal carcinoma was diagnosed, and he underwent a minimally invasive oesophagectomy in July. He initially did well, more adventures were planned, and he spent a happy weekend with his grandchildren in Winchester in early October. Within days he was overwhelmed by hepatic micrometastases. He died in Addenbrooke’s Hospital on 21 October 2023. He was 71.