Sundram Pillai studied medicine at the Westminster Hospital and Guy's. He passed the Conjoint Diploma in 1939 and the FRCS in 1949. He was outpatients' officer to Moorfields Eye Hospital, senior house surgeon to the Kent County Ophthalmic Hospital, Maidstone, and ophthalmic registrar to the Swansea General Hospital. He then became consultant in ophthalmic surgery to Bridgend, Port Talbot, Neath General, Tonna Children's and Maestag Hospitals. He was a member of the Ophthalmological Society of the UK and the Faculty of Ophthalmologists. He died on 8 March 1981, survived by his wife Lenora.