George Hargreaves ‘Steve’ Dunstone was a consultant general surgeon at Dryburn Hospital. He was born in Houghton-le-Spring, county Durham, on 23 October 1925, the son of William Anthony Hargreaves, a jeweller and watchmaker, and Elsie Bailey, the daughter of a schoolmaster. He was educated at the primary and grammar schools in Houghton-le-Spring, from which he won a county scholarship to King’s College, Newcastle upon Tyne, in the University of Durham. After qualifying, he completed junior posts at Darlington Memorial Hospital and the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton. From 1949 to 1951 he did his National Service in the RAMC in Malaya with the Gurkha Rifles. On demobilisation he trained as a surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, where he developed a particular interest in vascular and oesophageal surgery under Kenneth McKeown. He was appointed consultant general surgeon at Dryburn Hospital in 1964, where his outstanding technical expertise attracted many trainees from Australia. He was postgraduate surgical tutor and college tutor for our College, and an active member of the Vascular Surgical Society and the Hadrian Surgical Club. He was president of the North of England Surgical Society from 1984 to 1985. In 1955 he married in 1955 Mavis Blewitt, by whom he had two daughters. His many interests included fly-fishing and travel, particularly to France, and the game of bowls. He was a governor of Durham High School for Girls and a member of Hatfield College of Durham University. He died on 15 November 2006 from bronchopneumonia and essential thrombocythaemia, leaving his wife, two daughters and two grandsons.