George Armitage was born at Rothwell, near Leeds, on 20 April 1896 the son of George Armitage, a company director and chairman of the family brickworks. His mother was Annie Elizabeth Flocton, the daughter of a prison governor. He was educated at the village school at Ackworth and entered Leeds Medical School in 1912, but his medical education was interrupted by his distinguished service in the first world war with the Royal Artillery, attaining the rank of Colonel when he commanded 269 Field Regiment RA. He was engaged in the battle of the Somme in 1916 and was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous bravery in the field. The following year he took part in the battle of Passchendaele and was awarded a bar to his MC. In 1918 he returned to medical school and qualified from Leeds in 1921 with first class honours and was awarded the William Hey Gold Medal as the most outstanding student of the year. From 1921 to 1923 he was demonstrator in anatomy and then became house surgeon to Sir Berkeley Moynihan. In 1925 he was appointed resident surgical officer at the General Infirmary at Leeds and achieved the FRCS. He became university surgical tutor in 1927 and two years later he was awarded a Rockefeller travelling fellowship to Harvard University and worked for a year under Professor Harvey Cushing at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. Following this excellent experience and training George Armitage was appointed honorary consultant surgeon at the General Infirmary at Leeds in 1933, having already carried out the first brain surgery at Leeds and was instrumental in the appointment of a full-time neurosurgeon, William Henderson, a fellow student with Harvey Cushing. In 1934 additional appointments included consultant surgeon at Clayton Hospital, Wakefield and consultant to the Ministry of Pensions at Chapel Allerton. In 1939 he was Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons and in 1940 he became full surgeon to the General Infirmary. George, as he was affectionately known to generations of medical students, soon established a fine reputation as a great surgical teacher and technician and was among the first to recognise the importance of transurethral surgery and the first Leeds surgeon to apply this technique. He excelled in thyroid surgery, but he was also a general surgeon of outstanding technical ability. No wonder, therefore, that he established an enormous hospital and private practice. He always felt real concern for all his patients and deep sympathy for the relatives of those who were dangerously ill or dying. He could recall with ease the details of the family life of a patient who returned to him with recurrent illness and he knew where his patients lived and worked. As a member of the Moynihan Travelling Club he toured widely through Europe and the United States and there were few leading surgeons whom he did not know personally. In 1956 Sir Harry Platt invited him to represent the Royal College of Surgeons as an official delegate to the USSR which he regarded as one of the highlights of his surgical career. George Armitage had many interests and was a countryman at heart. In 1938 he acquired a herd of British Friesian cattle. He was President of the Yorkshire British Friesian Breeders Club in 1962-63 and was Vice-President of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society. A great golfer, despite his limp, he won the Medical Golfing Society of Great Britain and Ireland Trophy in 1952 and the Armitage Cup is played for annually on his favourite golf course at Alwoodley, Leeds. For many years after the first world war he remained in the Territorial Army and was awarded the Territorial Decoration for his long service. On retiring from the National Health Service he put his tremendous energies into the family business and became chairman of Armitage Bricks, holding this post until 1976. George Armitage is remembered with real affection for the warmth he brought to his personal relationships with his friends, colleagues, patients and staff. He married Mildred Jane Hare in 1929 and they had two daughters and a son. He died on 30 May 1979 while on holiday in the USA.