Gerald Victor Wright Anderson was born on 19 October 1893 at Porth Nolloth, Cape Colony, during the Boer War. His schooling was very erratic with short spells in Mombasa, England and France. He entered Bristol University for one year in 1909 and passed his first MB, but then rejoined his father as a reporter on the East African Standard from 1910 to 1913. He then entered University College to complete his medical studies. He was awarded the gold medal in anatomy, was appointed demonstrator in anatomy and passed his primary FRCS while still a student. Shortly after qualifying in January 1918 he joined the RAMC only to be wounded and taken prisoner of war in June. He was released after the armistice and resumed his surgical studies as house surgeon to Wilfred Trotter. He gained the FRCS in 1919 and further experience at University College Hospital before returning to Kenya where he became a consultant surgeon. He played an important part in the establishment of the surgical services of Nairobi. In 1935 he was President of the Kenya branch of the BMA and he was a founder member of the East African Association of Surgeons, being President in 1956 and 1957. In the second world war he was appointed an honorary Colonel RAMC and on his retirement from practice was made a surgeon emeritus to the King George VI Hospital. His hobbies were collecting and breeding wild African plants, photography and wild game safari. He was twice married, first in 1917 to Caroline who became a prominent artist. They had two sons and three daughters; one son is a doctor, the eldest daughter married a doctor while a medical student and her eldest son is an orthopaedic surgeon in Brechin, Angus, and is a fellow of the Edinburgh College. Eleven years after Caroline's death he married Olga Jaggi who survived him. He died on 11 August 1986.