James Kellerman, ‘AJK’, spent almost his entire career as a consultant neurosurgeon serving patients in Essex, the county of his birth. He was born in Colchester on 12 June 1948. His father, Francis Kellerman (formerly Ferenc Kellermann), was a respected physician in the town; his mother’s maiden name was Jones. He left school at 16 and took a job as a groundsman before obtaining a pharmacology degree and then qualifying in medicine from the London Hospital Medical School in 1974. He gained his FRCS in 1979. His aptitude for technical and decision-making challenges drew him to neurosurgery, in which he commenced inspirational training with Tom King and with Sidney Watkins at the London Hospital before undertaking a registrar post with John Bartlett and colleagues at the south east Thames regional neurosurgical unit at Brook General Hospital and senior registrar training at the same unit as well as at the Guy’s/Maudsley unit and at King’s. He was accredited in neurosurgery in 1985. He was appointed as a consultant neurosurgeon at Oldchurch Hospital, Romford on 1 November 1985, where his arrival was later described by his senior colleague Neil Garvan as a defining moment and a breath of fresh air. Together with Garvan and later Jonathan Benjamin, James was key to the transition of Leslie Oliver’s post-war Romford unit to a secure footing from its early days as one of the smaller foundations. His judgement and skill were highly valued at Oldchurch, and over the 20 years that followed in private spinal practice and in medicolegal work. He was inquisitive, challenging of convention and inspired countless neurosurgical trainees. After his resignation from the NHS in 2002, he was regularly in contact with his successors and a source of constant encouragement, delivering a stirring appreciation of the now much-enlarged Romford unit at the Society of British Neurological Surgeons’ meeting in 2013. Outside of work he was a highly experienced glider pilot and trainer. He was unfailingly great company, a driving force and a huge personality in Essex neurosurgery. He died in August 2022 at the age of 74.