Born in Hampstead in 1878, the third son of Frederick Hoare Colt, a barrister and bencher of the Inner Temple, George Herbert Colt was educated at Tonbridge School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he became a scholar. He obtained a first-class in the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1900, and completed his medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1904. He had an original and fertile brain and was frequently inventing work-saving methods and appliances both in his professional life and for his many hobbies. In the *Lancet* of 19 September 1903 Sir D'Arcy Power reported "A case of aneurysm of the abdominal aorta treated by the introduction of silver wire, with a description of instruments invented and constructed by Mr G H Colt to facilitate the introduction of wire into aneurysms". This was a year before Colt qualified. He held appointments as house surgeon and junior and senior resident anaesthetist at St Bartholomew's, obtained the FRCS in 1908 and became senior house surgeon at the Derby Royal Infirmary. Two years later Colt was appointed assistant surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, where he remained until 1934. In 1914 he was honorary secretary of the Section of Surgery at the BMA Annual Meeting in Aberdeen. On the outbreak of the first world war in 1914, Colt was mobilised with his chief, Sir John Marnoch at the 1st Scottish General Hospital, and in 1916 went to Salonika in charge of the surgical division of the 43rd General Hospital. From November 1918 to September 1919 he was officer in command of the surgical division of the 82nd General Hospital at Constantinople. After the war Colt returned to Aberdeen and in 1923 was appointed full surgeon at the Royal Infirmary. He was also assistant to the professor of surgery, Sir John Marnoch, in the University and lecturer in clinical surgery. In 1934 he returned to London and set up in practice at 10 Harley Street. Later he became consultant in surgery to the Gravesend and North Kent Hospital. Colt was a good mechanic and always kept a workshop. Besides his apparatus for the treatment of aneurysm of the aorta, he invented a needle for the tension stitch, a distraction apparatus for fixing and holding the fractured ends of bones ready for plating, and an interchangeable "pistol grip" for a bone-drill. Colt had a quiet manner which concealed his courage and tenacity of purpose. For twenty years he studied necropsies on aneurysm and collected some 707 cases. Colt was twice married: his first wife Henrietta, daughter of Thomas Dick and a former Sister at Bart's, died on 1 October 1950; they had one daughter. His second wife, Constance Elizabeth White, died on 26 July 1957 and he died at his home West Meade, Lockner Holt, Chilworth, near Guildford, three months later on 26 October 1957, aged 79. He was warmly attached to the College, regularly attended the public lectures here, and presented a number of engraved portraits of medical men to the Library. Publications: Tuberculous disease of the abdominal lymphatic glands, with G N Clark. *Lancet* 1937, 1, 125. Some surgical aspects of tuberculous disease of the abdominal lymphatic glands, with G N Clark. *Surg Gynec Obstet* 1937, 65, 771.