Jagan Nath Madan was born on 12 June 1896 in Sahowala, in the district of Sialkot. He was the second child of Karamchand Adan, a doctor. After school in Batalia he attended the Lahore Medical College in the Punjab where he won a silver medal in anatomy and graduated MB, BS in 1919. After an appointment as demonstrator in anatomy he joined the Medical Corps of the Indian Army in 1922 and served as a Captain from 1923 to 1931. During that time he worked in the political department as agency surgeon in Muscat from 1924 to 1928. He left the army in 1932 and came to England after his first wife's death. In 1935 he took the FRCS. While in England he met Lajwanti Ramakrishna whom he married in 1936. He returned to India becoming chief medical officer in Kutch Bihar State and the chief surgeon and medical officer in Jodhpur State. In 1948 he entered private practice in general surgery in Jodhpur State, then in Delhi and finally in Meerut, where he practised surgery from 1954 to 1977. Apart from general surgery his main interest was in plastic surgery. He was a member of the BMA from 1934, a Rotarian from 1951, a member of the Indian Medical Association and President of the Jodhpur branch. He was a keen tennis player, a great walker and an enthusiastic reader of both general literature and professional books. He died in the Military Hospital, Meerut, on 31 January 1980, survived by his son, Dr Y N Madan, who is in general practice in Salford and two daughters, one of whom is an SRN.