David Allden Lloyd was a professor of paediatric surgery at the University of Liverpool and an honorary consultant paediatric surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. He was born on 11 May 1940 in Paulpietersburg, a small town in what was then the province of Natal, South Africa. His grandfather, John Allen Lloyd, and his father, Mervyn Allden Lloyd, both served as local doctors in his rural childhood home of Dundee, Natal, instilling in David not only a commitment to medicine, but also a deep sense of duty and of community, which stayed with him throughout his life. His mother was Violet Ethel Lloyd née Medway. In 1958 David went to England to study medicine and qualified at Cambridge and Barts. After pre-registration house officer posts at Barts and in Norwich – and possibly drawn by his Welsh family roots – he undertook a senior house officer post in Cardiff. It was here a lifelong passion for Welsh rugby was born during frequent trips to Cardiff Arms Park, with the soaring pre-match anthems and a mutual antipathy towards the English team bringing back memories of his homeland. In 1969, he returned to South Africa, working at the Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg, and with Christiaan Barnard at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. He took his first registrar post in paediatric surgery at the Red Cross Memorial Children’s Hospital, also in Cape Town, where he met his future English wife Carol, who was working there as a nurse and midwife. He became a fellow of the College of Surgeons of South Africa in 1971. He briefly returned to England in 1974, completing a further 18 months in general surgery and passing his FRCS, before taking the post of senior surgeon in the department of general surgery at the Ladysmith Provincial Hospital and then, in 1977, undertaking a similar post in the department of paediatric surgery at the King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban. He wrote his MChir thesis in 1979 on the subject of colonic interposition following massive small bowel resection. He would have happily remained in South Africa for the rest of his professional life, but the deep societal divisions of the Apartheid era presented a constant challenge. When an invitation arrived from Mark Rowe to join him as an associate professor in the department of pediatric surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, he took the difficult decision to leave his beloved homeland, arriving in the USA with his young family in September 1982. He passed the FRCS (Canada) in 1986 and the FACS in 1988, prior to returning to England in 1989 to succeed Jimmy Lister as the departmental professor of paediatric surgery at the University of Liverpool, with an honorary post as a consultant paediatric surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. He built a successful research group; through his mentorship his research fellows, lecturers and senior lecturers have gone on to make significant contributions, with many going on to be appointed to prestigious paediatric surgical chairs. In the end he published over 100 peer-reviewed publications, with interests ranging from nutrition and metabolism in the surgical newborn, pulmonary pathophysiology in congenital diaphragmatic hernia, trauma prevention and management, the cellular basis of Hirschsprung’s disease and the surgical oncology of childhood. He was active within the Association of Professors of Surgery, the Surgical Research Society and the UK Children’s Cancer Study Group and had numerous appointments as a visiting professor. David was made an honorary member of both the American Academy of Pediatrics (section on surgery) and the American Pediatric Surgical Association in 1989, and of the Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons in 1995, to whom he also delivered a guest lecture in his role as British Association of Paediatric Surgeons (BAPS) president. David embraced the full spectrum of professional life, whether in clinical management, education and training or in academic management, serving as chair of both the board of clinical studies and the faculty of medicine in Liverpool, and at Alder Hey as an associate medical director and a non-executive board director. He was both chairman and programme director of the specialist training and education committee for paediatric surgery, Northwest Consortium; and sat on the Specialty Advisory Committee for Paediatric Surgery. He was one of the first examiners for the new intercollegiate specialty examination in paediatric surgery. He successfully led the organisation of the 1999 BAPS congress in Liverpool. He served as president from 2001 to 2002 and was awarded the BAPS Denis Browne gold medal in 2005, immediately following his retirement in 2004. As BAPS president he set out two main goals; the first was to raise the profile of childhood trauma, both in its prevention and treatment, which resulted in the formation of the BAPS trauma committee; the second was to recognise the large international membership of BAPS, and to address their expectations and needs, particularly those from developing countries. This work continues through the BAPS international affairs committee, which organises the international forum meeting at the BAPS international congress, with the awarding of Greenwood fellowships and the Greenwood lecture. The latter were made possible by generous donations from Hugh Greenwood, a philanthropist from Liverpool, who via patient and gentle persuasion from David agreed to set up the Children’s Research Fund. An initial £10,000 donation was used to send a young surgeon from Uganda to Durban to work for a year. The success of this venture persuaded Mr Greenwood to underwrite many further international fellowships through BAPS, to a total of more than £150,000. In retirement, David continued his philanthropic international work through the Waterloo Partnership, which helps with practical aid to the community in Sierra Leone, and via trips to Gaza to help train young paediatric surgeons there. There is no doubt that David was a tough taskmaster, but this was driven by his constant striving for excellence in all he did. He would, however, always be prepared to listen to alternative points of view, which could at times lead to robust discussions at meetings and ward rounds. He never bore grudges, and any disagreements were soon forgotten. He made lifelong friendships, and often enjoyed a beer whilst watching rugby at Waterloo, his local club. He was an active rower for many years, was a keen birdwatcher (particularly when the opportunity arose to return to his native South Africa) and philatelist, holding a collection of thousands of carefully curated stamps from his childhood. Indeed, David never lost his deep-rooted love of his homeland, and would often reminisce about the Drakensberg mountains, where he had spent many hours walking and climbing, and at one stage even working with the local helicopter mountain rescue team in his younger days. He returned frequently on visits, and his eldest daughter, Megan, lives in Cape Town. Although a proud Liverpudlian for the last 35 years of life, the fact that he was never able to return to South Africa professionally was a source of some regret in later years. David enjoyed good health for most of his life but was diagnosed with a myelodysplastic syndrome in February 2024. He died peacefully at home on 2 May 2024 surrounded by his wife Carol, and his four children Megan, Kate, David (a paediatric cardiologist) and Christopher.