John Bradbeer was a consultant general surgeon at Mayday Hospital, Croydon. He was born in Redlands, Bristol on 9 August 1927. His mother, Edith Bradbeer née Chaplin, was originally from Salisbury. His father, Ernest Gustave Bradbeer, was head of the department of anaesthetics at the University of Bristol and co-founder and first president of the Society of Anaesthetists of the South West Region. Both John’s paternal and maternal families were entrepreneurs: the former established the Exeter Brick and Tile Company and the latter ran the Feathery Flake Flour Company. John’s education began at the XIV School in Clifton, Bristol, of which he had many fond memories, then in 1939 he was sent to board at Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire. The school was almost immediately evacuated to St David’s Theological College in Lampeter, Cardiganshire, where, as well as academic studies, there was a strict regime of exercise, including cycling 15 miles on Sunday afternoons, an activity which John relished. He later gained an open scholarship to the senior school, where he eventually became head boy. He recalled a variety of teachers including his French teacher, a Jewish Austrian lawyer who had escaped from Navarrenx in the Basses-Pyrénées region of France to Spain and eventually to the UK. In 1945 John entered St John’s College, Cambridge to study natural sciences, which enabled him to enter Guy’s Hospital as a medical student in 1947. Having been taught to sail while on family holidays in Exmouth, John was a keen member of the United Hospitals Sailing Club based at Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex. He loved sailing and taking part in races on Saturday afternoons and then sailing the rivers Crouch and Roach with friends on Sundays. During his time as a student John developed his ambition of becoming a surgeon and his first post of house surgeon in 1951 was at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, where he met his future wife, ward sister Sheila Attfield. They married in 1953 and were together for the next 61 wonderful years until Sheila’s death in 2014. John’s next post was as house surgeon to Sir Heneage Ogilvie and Hedley Atkins at Guy’s Hospital. He recalled the difference between the more relaxed atmosphere of Brighton and the formality of the teaching hospital and how the ward sisters at Guy’s lived in flats on their wards and there was no question of the nurses being addressed by their first names. Having gained his primary FRCS, John completed two years National Service at Wheatley Military Hospital near Oxford, followed by a year as a senior house officer at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. John’s next appointment was as a registrar to D B E Foster at Cardiff Royal Infirmary, who he described as a very precise man from whom he learnt a great deal. From here he gained a job as a registrar at St James’ Hospital, Balham to Norman Tanner, Andrew Desmond and Jeremiah Burke in rotation. John described this as a wonderful, extremely busy job and said that it was not long before the registrars had enough experience to carry out major operations on their own, both elective and emergency. Having completed two years in this job, John was fortunate to be appointed as a senior registrar to Norman Tanner for the next four years, during which time he gained experience in major procedures including total gastrectomy, oesophagectomy and pancreatectomy. One day in July 1962 Norman Tanner mentioned to John that a friend of his, J Englebert Dunphy of the University of Oregon, was visiting and looking for an assistant for a year, to research biomedical studies of connective tissue reaction to dacron aortic prostheses. John met Dunphy and was offered and accepted the appointment. The job was to start in October, to include a six-week holiday to see the country, and so began a year of never to be forgotten adventures for John, Sheila and their young children Robin and Sharon. On the family’s return from America, John’s immediate concern was to get a consultant job. He was keen to have a job in a busy district general hospital and in 1964 he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at Mayday Hospital, Croydon. Gastric surgery was beginning to change; peptic ulcers were now being treated medically so that gastrectomy and vagotomy almost disappeared from the operating lists, however there were still cancers of the colon, stomach, pancreas and oesophagus to deal with. In 1967 John started a breast clinic on one afternoon a week with a maximum waiting time of two weeks. If the patient had a breast lump a biopsy would be carried out immediately. It wasn’t long before the pathologists suggested doing frozen section examinations of the biopsies, allowing patients to have a diagnosis at once, so that arrangements could be made for surgery, if necessary, on the patient’s first visit. John received an NHS distinction award for this work. John began a study of treating breast cancer in females over the age of 70 with tamoxifen and, although the results were good, he did not have the staff or facilities to carry out further controlled trials so he handed over to Michael Baum, professor of surgery at King’s College Hospital. He did however present his results at lectures in Berlin, Istanbul, Cambridge, Seattle and Bologna. A colleague, Jimmy Wickremesinghe, remembers: ‘He was a kind and patient teacher… wise, knowledgeable and gifted. Technically he was the best surgeon I ever worked for as a surgical trainee… Medical staff and nursing staff all held John in high regard and had great loyalty and respect for his quiet, gentle manner at work. He always listened more than he spoke with patients, never rushing them, an excellent trait especially in his breast cancer work.’ John felt very honoured when he was appointed as an examiner for the final FRCS exam, a role he took on with great commitment. He was modest about his achievements, always even tempered but with a keen sense of humour. He enjoyed teaching and was very generous with his time and support of junior doctors. After retirement, John and Sheila moved to Gloucestershire to be nearer their family and continued with their interests of going to the theatre, travelling, walking the dogs and gardening. They loved to entertain family and friends and hosted some memorable family gatherings in their beautiful garden. John also undertook woodwork classes and produced some wonderful pieces of furniture, from a dining table to small chests and a desk, all in the Arts and Crafts style. John took great enjoyment from his four grandchildren, playing endless games with them and later giving them advice and encouragement. He lived a life of adventures both small and large and made many happy memories for his family, friends and colleagues. John died in Cheltenham Hospital on 14 February 2022 aged 94. He was survived by his son Robin, daughter Sharon and grandchildren, Jonathan, Emily, Laura and Amy. The breast unit at Croydon has been named in his honour: a well-deserved tribute to a great surgeon and the humblest of men.