François de Gaudart d'Allaines was born in Blois. His father was serving in the French Army but resigned in 1905 on account of the Army becoming implicated in the controversy between the Catholic Church and the anti-clerical government. François early decided to be a surgeon and when the first world war started he was a junior resident. He joined the Army and served with an ambulance at Verdun. After the war he became assistant to Paul Lecène at L'Hôpital Saint Louis and quickly showed great surgical skill with enthusiasm for new developments in surgery. He was especially interested in gastro-intestinal surgery and was the first in France to perform a total gastrectomy for carcinoma. He developed a technique for a one stage operation for resection of carcinoma of the colon, and a transacral approach for carcinoma of the rectum with preservation of the anal sphincter. After the second world war he became interested in the new development of heart surgery and also the removal of aortic aneurysms. He was President of the Association Française de Chirurgie, and a member of the Académie des Sciences to which traditionally only two surgeons are admitted. A man of great culture as well as an outstanding surgeon he was interested in all human achievement and especially in literature and art. He returned to his native county in the Loire Valley where he had acquired a small chateau at Clemont which had formerly belonged to his family. There he bred cattle and was killed by a car when inspecting his herd in February 1974.