James Hamilton Tweedie was a consultant general surgeon at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury. He was born in Rabui, New Guinea, on 31 March 1950, the eldest son of George Carrick Tweedie, a surgeon, and Gladys Mary Tweedie. He was educated at Loughborough College School and then went on to study medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1973 and gaining the Knott prize in surgery (in 1971) and the Willet medal in operative surgery. He was a house surgeon on the surgical professorial unit at Bart's, and then a resident surgical officer at the Royal Marsden Hospital. He subsequently became a senior registrar at St Mark's Hospital in London, a research fellow at the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA, and a senior registrar in general surgeon in Nottingham. He was then appointed to his consultant post at Stoke Mandeville. Outside medicine he was interested in rugby and art. On 15 July 2011 he died after a two-year battle with cancer. He was survived by his wife Julia and two children, George and Juliette.