John Frederick Thompson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 29 December 1957. After initially studying in Southampton, he trained in medicine at Charing Cross Medical School in London, qualifying MB, BS in 1982. After house jobs at Charing Cross, he was Wessex research fellow at Southampton University and Royal Infirmary and then was appointed lecturer and senior registrar at Bristol University and Royal Infirmary. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1986 and became a consultant vascular surgeon at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RDEH). At the RDEH he worked energetically to build on the research into blood transfusion he had begun in Southampton and rapidly achieved an international reputation in the field. In 1987 he co-founded the Rouleaux Club for vascular surgery trainees which was initially dismissed as irrelevant by the official Vascular Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (VSGBI). Later it was recognised as providing a valuable forum and its president given a seat on the VSGBI council. John also served on the VSGBI council and was the first surgeon to sit on the council of the British Transfusion Society. He was on many cell salvage and blood transfusion committees, including the Chief Medical Officer’s National Blood Transfusion Committee. Regarded as the most knowledgeable person on the management of thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) in Europe, he was often consulted by famous footballers and athletes as to how to manage their condition. The co-author of two textbooks on blood transfusion, he also co-wrote 31 book chapters and over 100 publications. A man of immense joie de vivre, he was famous as an amateur stage and band performer. A colleague affectionately recalled that he was one of *the very best tellers of the very worst jokes*. He died from a gastric carcinoma on 25 February 2021 aged 63, survived by his wife, Fiona, daughter Polly, a medical student, and sons, William and Henry.