James Bernard Bourke (Jim) was born on 8 November 1940 and studied medicine at Cambridge University and the London Hospital, graduating MB,BChir in 1965. He passed the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1967 and that of the college in 1969. After working as a lecturer in surgery at the London Hospital Medical College, he took up the post of consultant surgeon and reader in surgery at the Nottingham General Hospital on 1 January 1972. A member of the team that established the Queen’s Medical Centre and new medical school, he worked energetically both as a surgeon and teacher for the following 30 years. While also working as doctor and chairman for the Nottingham rugby club, he was horrified by the injuries inflicted during scrums and when he published an article (*BMJ* 2006;332:1281) claiming that scrums should be uncontested it attracted the attention of the national press. Seven of the young men he treated had suffered spinal injuries and two had become permanent wheelchair users as a result. He was a member of the Surgical Research Society, the Society for the Study of Human Biology and the Association for the Study of Medical Education. After suffering from dementia for some years, he died on 18 August 2018, survived by his wife Ann, three children and six grandchildren.