John Pullan was a senior surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital in London. He was born in Yorkshire on 1 August 1915 and educated at Shrewsbury, where he boxed and rowed. He was a scholar at King's College, Cambridge, and entered St Thomas's Hospital in 1937, qualifying in 1940. He held junior posts and served in West Africa as a Major in the RAMC. In 1948, he joined the surgical unit at St Thomas's, where he was appointed consultant in 1951. He was subsequently appointed to King Edward VII, the Royal Masonic and the Bolingbroke Hospitals. He had a reputation for thyroid and adrenal gland surgery, and for his clinical judgement and skill. He served on the Court of Examiners of the College, and was an examiner for the Universities of Cambridge and London. For 20 years he organised the Fellowship class at St Thomas's. Fishing and gardening were his two main hobbies. He fished all the great salmon rivers in Britain, and also in Norway. He knew the English and Latin names of almost every flower, shrub, bird, butterfly, moth and ephemerid in the country. He was a charming and humorous host, and was quiet and modest. He was always smartly dressed, having allegedly 100 Savile Row suits, and two beautiful fifties Rolls Royces. He is survived by his wife, Wendy (née Craven-Veitch), a St Thomas's nurse and the daughter of a surgeon, whom he married in 1940 at the height of the London Blitz, by their son, Julian, and three daughters, Susan, Andrea and Tessa.