Christopher Julian Pritchett ‘Chris’ was a consultant general surgeon at the South Tyneside District Hospital in South Shields. He was born on 6 November 1948 in Chippenham, Wiltshire, although his parents came from the Bradford area. His father, Gerald Ralph Pritchett, was ambitious and, together with his wife Joan (née Wilson) and young family, he moved around the country for various teaching jobs until he was promoted to director of education in Oldham. From a young age, Chris was driven with a determination to succeed at being a medical doctor, with a strong desire to have a meaningful role in society and help people. He studied medicine at the University of Bristol and took an intercalated BSc degree in anatomy, qualifying in 1974 with a MB ChB. He spent a year as an anatomy demonstrator in the accident and emergency and orthopaedic departments in Nottingham before moving to the northeast for his surgical training. He undertook registrar posts in Durham, Ashington and the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle and achieved his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1979. He was awarded a Prophit studentship in cancer research to study cell kinetics at the University of Newcastle from 1979 to 1981. Whilst writing up his research, he worked as a registrar and locum senior registrar in Newcastle and was awarded an MD from the University of Bristol in 1983 for his thesis on ‘Cell proliferation studies on human colorectal cancer and mucosa in vitro’. After many unsuccessful interviews to become a senior registrar in the UK, Chris was delighted to be appointed as a lecturer in surgery at Queen Mary Hospital, University of Hong Kong. He married Shirley Coleman, a statistician, in 1985 and together they both worked at the University of Hong Kong from 1986 to 1990. The surgical work was intense, with full operating lists under John Wong and many stimulating research projects. Chris published many papers and conference abstracts over the years. He enjoyed working with other people and making innovative uses of statistics. For example, he wrote ‘Risk models for rebleeding and postoperative mortality in bleeding gastric ulcer’ with his wife, John Wong and Frank Branicki (*Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 1991 May;73[3]:179-84). The family moved back to the UK when Chris was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at South Tyneside NHS Trust in 1990. He worked there for over 20 years. Chris became a pioneer of day surgery, working with his GP colleague Colin Bradshaw developing the South Tyneside FASTRAK Service. The service was very highly thought of, and Chris was flown out first class to Australia as a guest speaker to the Adelaide Day Surgery 2000 Conference to showcase the work. Chris’ enthusiasm for teaching and research was widely recognised and there have been many wonderful tributes from colleagues and medical students who held him in high regard. Chris was very unassuming, calm and always polite. He went above and beyond, in dedication to his profession within the NHS. His patients had great trust in him; if he bumped into former patients in South Shields, they would often come up to him and thank him again. As with most surgeons, Chris went into the hospital on Saturday mornings to check the patients he had operated on through the week and was often on site on Sundays as well. At Christmas time he enjoyed going into the hospital with his family, who were always well fed by the staff on the wards. For the children, there were lots of joyful moments and lasting memories of hospital work. Chris enjoyed music and played the guitar and banjo. When he was a student at Bristol University, he played the fiddle in a rock band of sorts. He had a passion for woodwork and a particular interest in repairing and restoring stringed instruments. Chris was a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. He developed this interest when he spent his student summer holidays volunteering in France with Alpes de Lumière, an organisation dedicated to the cultural, historical and environmental preservation of Provence. There he learnt how to repair stone walls, dig holes and pick grapes and lavender. He also learnt to speak French and was pretty fluent, especially when discussing monuments and castles. Chris retired in 2011 and had a happy life with his hobbies and activities. He was always on the go. His cooking was extravagant and famous, with scant regard to worries about using too much cream and butter. He spent a lot of time in the family’s farmhouse in France, renovating the barns and building stone terraces. He made a lot of French friends, many of whom he visited regularly. His friends dedicated a tree in his honour with a plaque saying ‘L’ Arbre de Chris Pritchett’ (‘Chris Pritchett’s tree’). Chris was very attached to his family. He was proud of his daughter Rosie, who is a dentist, and his son, Rowan, a mathematician. He filled the house with an eclectic library of books on old buildings, design, antiques, art and artists, history and ancient French culture. He was a great collector and has left a legacy of fascinating pottery, carvings and artefacts for Shirley, Rosie and Rowan, who survive him. He died on 23 May 2023 aged 74.