Rasamay Ganguly was born in Barisal, Bengal, on 1 May 1918. His father Heramba Chandra Ganguly was an excise officer in the Bengal Civil Service. His mother was Hemanginee Mukherjee, daughter of a deputy magistrate in the same service. The second son in a family of six children, he was educated at the Jenkins School in Cooch Behar (where he won the Maharaja's medal) and the Intermediate College Dacca (where he won the Brahmachari prize). His medical training was at the Medical College of Calcutta, where he won numerous prizes and medals. After junior appointments in Calcutta, he joined the Indian Medical Service and continued in the Indian Army Medical Corps after partition. He was seconded to England to specialise in surgery, won the Hallett prize in 1954 and passed the final FRCS two years later. He was much influenced by Charles Rob at St Mary's and by B K Rank, the plastic surgeon in Melbourne. He was appointed reader and then professor of surgery in the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, with the Army rank of Brigadier. He examined at the University of Poona and was President of the Association of Plastic Surgeons of India. He was awarded many honours and distinctions, including the Vishist Seva medal from the President of India in 1969, the B C Roy memorial oration medal from the Medical Council of India in 1972, and the silver medal from the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India. He married Anima Chatterjee, daughter of a district judge in West Bengal, and had one son and two daughters, all of whom entered medicine. He died on 14 February 2001.