Desmond Gerard Taylor was a cardiothoracic surgeon in Sheffield. He was born in Belfast on 12 December 1925 and was educated at a Christian Brothers' School. He then studied medicine at Queen's University, Belfast. After qualifying in 1948, he went to London, where he worked in Great Ormond Street, Guy's and Brompton hospitals. He then worked for Sir Russell Brock helping him perform, for the first time in the UK, successful open heart surgery using a heart bypass machine. After his National Service, he was appointed as a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon in Sheffield in 1960. He chaired Sheffield's consultants' committee and then the south Yorkshire consultants' committee. In retirement he travelled widely. Predeceased by his wife Colette, Desmond Gerard Taylor died on 30 March 2014, aged 88. He was survived by his three children, but one, John, a consultant in transplant surgery at Guy's, died three months after him. He had seven grandchildren.