Harold Homewood Nixon (Nicky) was born in Newcastle on 27 February 1918, the son of Isaac Nixon, a chartered accountant. After early education at Fenham High School and the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, for pre-clinical studies in 1935 and Durham Medical School for clinical studies. He qualified in 1941 and in the following year joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve serving in Icelandic convoys and on minesweepers in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic as Surgeon-Lieutenant. After demobilisation in 1946 he was surgical registrar and orthopaedic registrar at the Royal Victoria, Newcastle, and passed the FRCS within two years. He then trained in paediatric surgery at Great Ormond Street under Sir Denis Browne and was appointed consultant paediatric surgeon to Queen Mary's Hospital, Carshalton, in 1953 and to Great Ormond Street three years later. His particular interest was in the treatment of anorectal atresia and Hirschsprung's disease and he found time to publish over one hundred original papers in addition to a heavy clinical commitment, which embraced the entire field of paediatric surgery. He was the author of *Surgical conditions in paediatrics* and joint author of *Essentials in paediatric surgery*. He was Hunterian Professor in 1959, lecturing on *An experimental study of propulsion in isolated small intestine and applications to surgery in the newborn*; he was founder member of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons and its President from 1973 to 1974. He also served as President of the Paediatric Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. In 1982 he was awarded the Denis Browne Medal of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons for distinguished service to the specialty and was also honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the American College of Surgeons, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Paediatrics. Harold Nixon was perhaps one of the most revered and popular paediatric surgeons in the British Isles. He exerted a profound influence on a whole new generation of paediatric surgeons with whom he always kept close ties. He was known as a generous and congenial host and was always highly sought after as a guest speaker. He was a keen sailor and spent many enjoyable hours under canvas in the Aegean and on the Solent. He married Pat in 1939 and they had a son and daughter. When his wife died in 1982 he was devastated but remarried in 1989 a year before his own death on 3 July 1990, aged 72. He was survived by his second wife, Sally, and his children.