Ransford George Kerr ‘Ran’ de Castro was a New Zealand based surgeon. He was born on 1 September 1926, the son of Leopold Ransford de Castro, a general practitioner in Te Kuiti, a town on the North Island of New Zealand, and Edith Mary de Castro née Kerr. De Castro studied medicine at Otago University, qualifying in 1950. He went to the UK for further training and gained his FRCS in 1957. He subsequently returned to New Zealand. He was a keen skier and a member of the Ruapehu Ski Club. In 1953 he married Brya Denis Duigan in London. De Castro died in Dunedin on 5 June 2016 at the age of 89 and was survived by his second wife Anneka and his children, Denis, Eve, Lucy, Caroline and Nancy. Eve de Castro is a prominent composer and musician.