Geoffrey Gilling-Smith was a consultant vascular surgeon at Royal Liverpool Hospital. He was born on 15 November 1955 at St George's Hospital, London, the son of Dryden Gilling-Smith, a businessman. His mother, who was head of the physics and chemistry department at the French Lycée in South Kensington, spoke French and he was bilingual. When he was 11 his aortic coarctation was repaired by Charles Drew at the Westminster Hospital. Brought up in Tadworth, he gained a scholarship to Epsom College, where he captained the shooting team, and he went on to study medicine at Charing Cross Medical School. He was a casualty officer in Ealing, a senior registrar at St Mary's and a research fellow at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, prior to his appointment to his consultant post in Liverpool. At Liverpool he was greatly involved in training and education. His particular expertise within vascular surgery was the endovascular treatment of arterial disease, specifically aortic aneurysms. He was a member of the council of the Vascular Society and a member of the European Society for Vascular Surgery. He was a surgical tutor for the Royal College of Surgeons. Outside medicine he had a wide range of interests, including painting, music, particularly jazz, motor bikes and fast cars. He was also a member of the board of his father's company and was involved in other companies which he helped to establish. Geoffrey Gilling-Smith died on 17 January 2010 from aortic valve disease. He was survived by his wife Lynda, his two children, his sister and parents. He was 54.