Chummy Sundaraja Sinnatamby was a distinguished anatomist and editor of *Last’s anatomy: regional and applied*. He was born on 4 July 1934 in Ceylon, the son of George Selvaratnam Sinnatamby, a consultant surgeon at the General Hospital in Colombo, and Josephine Sinnatamby. He studied medicine at the University of Ceylon, qualifying in 1960 with the Caldecott gold medal for the best performance in the final MB BS examination, the Rockwood gold medal for surgery and the Garvin gold medal for operative surgery. He gained his FRCS in 1965. In 1968 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at the General Hospital, Colombo, and as a senior lecturer at the University of Colombo; ten years later he became a professor of surgery there. He was also a surgical consultant for the World Health Organization. In 1986 he joined the Royal College of Surgeons of England as the Bernard and Ethel Mason tutor in anatomy. A year later, he was made a senior lecturer, and, in 1990, he became the curator of the Wellcome Museum of Anatomy and Pathology. In 1992 he was appointed to the post of surgical anatomy tutor, a role he developed at the Raven department of education. He was also a member of the court of examiners and examined for the Royal College of Surgeons of England in the UK and abroad. In 1999 he became an anatomy tutor at New Hall, University of Cambridge, and, from 2001, also at Hughes Hall. From 2002 he was director of studies for anatomy at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, and, from 2003, professor of surgical anatomy at the Kigezi International Medical School, Cambridge. In 1974 he was awarded the Sir Arthur M De Silva gold medal of the College of Surgeons of Sri Landa. Four years later, he received the H J Hazari gold medal of the College of General Practitioners of Sir Lanka, and in 1980 he was awarded the G H Cooray medal by the Sri Lanka Cancer Society. In the UK, in 1989, he was awarded the James Moncrieff Arnott medal of the Royal College of Surgeons of England for his work on the anatomical basis of surgery of the parotid glands and, in 1999, the prestigious Sir Arthur Keith medal for his contributions to anatomy and education. In 2002, he received the Farquharson award of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He held visiting professorships at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Maryland, USA, and at universities in Malta, Malaysia, Singapore, Western Australia, Hong Kong and at Osaka in Japan. He was an external examiner for the University of Cambridge, Trinity College, Dublin, Kuwait University, King Saud University, Riyadh, and at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He wrote widely on aspects of the surgical management of gastrointestinal and endocrine problems. He completely revised *Last’s anatomy: regional and applied* and edited the 10th (Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone, 1999), 11th (Edinburgh, Elsevier/Churchill Livingstone, 2006) and 12th editions (Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier, 2011). Predeceased by his wife Selvi, Sinnatamby died on 27 February 2019 in Cambridge at the age of 84. He was survived by his daughter, Ruchi, a consultant radiologist, and two grandchildren.