Robert Wallace (Bob) Nevin was born in Burton-on-Trent in 1907, the son of a general practitioner. He was educated at Clifton College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He joined St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1929 and had a distinguished undergraduate career, winning the Cheselden and Clutton Medals in surgery before qualifying in 1933. In his early postgraduate years he was awarded the Perkins Travelling Fellowship and the Louis Jenner and Anderson Scholarships before the second world war interrupted his training. He became a member of the RAMC and initially served in France, taking part in the evacuation of Dunkirk. He then served in the Middle East and Yugoslavia, rising to the rank of Colonel. After demobilization, he was appointed to the surgical staff of St Thomas's Hospital, which institution he served with distinction for the rest of his life. An outstanding undergraduate surgical teacher, Nevin was sometime examiner in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London and Glasgow and served as a member of the Court of Examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In 1947 he was Hunterian Professor and his lecture on the surgical aspects of intestinal amoebiasis was published in the first volume of the *Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England*. Appointed Dean of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1957, Bob Nevin continued in this appointment for ten years during which time he was instrumental in securing much academic development within the Medical School as well as playing a large part in the planning of the re-development of the war-damaged hospital buildings. He was chief surgeon to the Metropolitan Police from 1957 to 1977 and served on the Senate of the University of London from 1966 to 1969. Bob Nevin had a remarkable personality, being warm-hearted, genuinely concerned for the individual, devoid of all malice and a man of the highest integrity. He was legendary among medical students for knowing everyone by name and background which he remembered long after they had left the School. To them he was 'Uncle Bob'. His colleagues would often turn to him for advice both in regard to personal matters and in regard to their health. At St Thomas's he was truly a legend in his lifetime and the main lecture theatre is now called after him, so that his name lives on. In private life he was blessed with a very happy marriage to Audrey Spencer Leeson, daughter of the Bishop of Peterborough and sometime Headmaster of Winchester College. He had an interest in church architecture at home and abroad and took an active part in helping to run the parish of Greywell, Hampshire, where he lived. He was a Past Master of The Salters' Company and for twenty-five years was secretary of the Travelling Surgical Club. He died suddenly on 20 December 1980 and was survived by his wife, two daughters and a son who is a housemaster at Winchester College.