Born on 1 October 1894 at Bishopstoke, Hampshire, son of Dr Henry James Bailey MB, MS (Edin). He was educated at St Lawrence College, Ramsgate and then entered the London Hospital Medical College. His studies were interrupted by the first world war and whilst serving as a dresser with the first Belgian unit of the British Red Cross, he was taken prisoner. He was later repatriated and after qualifying in 1917 he served in the Royal Navy as a Surgeon-lieutenant in HMS *Inflexible* and *Monitor 19*. In 1920 Bailey took the FRCS and then held the posts of surgical registrar and first surgical assistant at the London Hospital. In 1925-26 he held the Gillson Scholarship, awarded by the Society of Apothecaries, and he was then appointed assistant surgeon to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. Wishing to broaden his experience, he took the unusual step of resigning from the honorary staff of the Liverpool Infirmary to become resident surgeon at the Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham. It was during this period that Bailey gained the experience, particularly in emergency surgery, about which he wrote so successfully later. In 1931 he was surgeon to the Bruce Wills Memorial Hospital at Bristol, but the following year he returned to London as head of the genito-urinary department of the Royal Northern Hospital. In due course he joined the staff of several other hospitals, including the Italian Hospital, the Clacton Hospital, the Metropolitan Ear Nose and Throat Hospital, and St Vincent's Clinic. He was also surgeon and urologist to the Essex County Council and an external examiner in surgery to the University of Bristol. A Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons, he was also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the Société d'Urologie, and a vice-president of the International College of Surgeons. Though he was disappointed never to have been on the staff of one of the teaching hospitals, he has been claimed as one of the greatest influences of the century on British undergraduate surgical teaching. He made his name by a series of surgical textbooks which won a prodigious success. His first book *Demonstrations of physical signs in clinical surgery* was published in 1927 while he was still at Birmingham. In 1930 appeared his *Emergency surgery* which was universally acclaimed. With R J McNeill Love he wrote *A short practice of surgery* which was first published in 1932. The success of Bailey's books was largely due to his lucid, crisp style and to the superb illustrations which he was one of the first to introduce in British medical textbooks. Bailey was a large man with abounding energy. His main relaxation was swimming and he kept his own pool which he used all the year round. In 1925 he married Veta Gillender, and their home became a welcome meeting place for students from all over the world, regardless of race, colour or creed. Their only son, Hamilton, was tragically killed in 1943 at the age of fifteen in a railway accident at Preston. On retiring Hamilton Bailey bought a house at Malaga, Spain, but died there a year later on 26 March 1961, aged 66. Publications: *Demonstrations of physical signs in clinical surgery*. 1927; 13th edit 1960. *Emergency Surgery*. 1930; 7th edit 1958. *A short practice of surgery*, with R J McNeill Love 1932; 11th edit 1959. *Notable names in medicine and surgery*, with W J Bishop 1944; 3rd edit 1959. Editor: *Pye's Surgical Handicraft* 11th edit 1938 to 18th edit 1962. Editor: *Surgery of modern warfare* 1940-41; 3rd edit 1944.