Jerry Gilmore was a consultant general surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, where he established the pioneering breast unit. He was born on 27 December 1941, a much-loved son of Owen Dermot Gilmore and Carmel Gilmore née Cantwell. His father was a respected and successful family doctor and ophthalmic physician in Highworth, north Wiltshire, and his mother was a housewife and magistrate. He, together with his younger sisters Clare and Sarah, were brought up in a strong and supportive family. Tragically his youngest sister Katherine died aged three with cerebral palsy. It was always evident how much Jerry appreciated his luck in being part of such a nurturing, close knit family: educated, stimulated and, above all, loved. After prep school in Buckinghamshire, Jerry attended Beaumont College. At Beaumont he flourished on the sports field, excelling as a rugby player and oarsman and also as a county tennis player. He was always proud to have rowed at Henley and continued to attend the royal regatta annually in grand style. Jerry’s great passion was for rugby, both as a player but also later as an administrator and supporter of the game: this remained with him throughout his life. Jerry entered Barts in 1961 after an interview with Denis Ellison Nash, then dean, who noted that Jerry had listed one of his hobbies as architecture and enquired about which particular aspects interested him most. Having spent his childhood with his parents on numerous tours of European cathedrals, Jerry replied without hesitation ‘ecclesiastical sir’. He was offered a place. At Barts initially his focus was not surprisingly the rugby field in his preclinical years, where he played for the first team and United Hospitals. There Jerry made many friends; friendships which remained throughout his life. It was there that he met Hilary McCrudden, a young Barts nurse, who shortly after qualifying became his wife. As a clinical student Jerry put his head down and clearly impressed: on qualifying he was offered a house surgeon’s post at Barts with Alan Hunt and Martin Birnstingl. Both were highly acclaimed surgeons with international reputations, who positively influenced Jerry’s decision to pursue a career in surgery and continued to support Jerry’s progress. Indeed Jerry’s postgraduate career was spectacularly successful, and his intellect, hard work and imagination really took hold. He won the Begley prize at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and this was a springboard to junior posts at Barts and then Reading, where he came under the influence particularly of Gordon Bone, Norman Rothnie and Conrad Latto, three exceptional surgeons and clinicians. He then returned to Barts as a senior registrar to Edward Tuckwell, James Robinson, Ian Todd, John Griffiths and Martin Birnstingl. He took time out to perform research into antisepsis in surgery, for which he gained a master of surgery degree by thesis, a sheaf of publications and presentations, plus a Hunterian professorship at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Jerry was appointed to the permanent consulting staff of Barts against strong opposition at the relatively young age of 36. He was also on the staff of Hackney Hospital, where he, alongside James Thomson, combined to form the ‘Tom and Jerry’ firm, providing exceptional care to the local community. In parallel he also managed to build up a very successful private practice based in Harley Street. Jerry continued to carry out clinical research, lectured extensively, teaching undergraduates and postgraduates and giving enormous support and guidance to his juniors. This included being a very active president of the hospital rugby club and then of United Hospitals, but also at that time raising six young children with Hilary (Anna, Emma, Inigo, Laura, Natasha and Rod). To say he was busy is an understatement. He had easy rapport with everyone: patients, medical and nursing staff and all supporting healthcare staff whatever their position or rank. These qualities led him to be able to cut through unnecessary obstacles and to undertake a massive amount of work effectively, efficiently and safely with excellent results. This was of great benefit not just to the individual patient but streamlined the care of a much larger number of patients. It was at this time that he was given the task of developing the breast unit at Barts with the formation of a one-stop breast cancer diagnosis and treatment programme with the collaboration of excellent radiologists – Audrey Tucker, Nick Perry and later Shirley Bradbrook. Of pivotal importance was the novel and innovative introduction of fine-needle aspiration cytology: Jerry realised its potential and, harnessing the expertise of great pathologists Marigold Curling and George Canti, was the first to introduce this into clinical practice. Until that time this had not been undertaken as an outpatient procedure. There was further collaboration in oncology and radiotherapy with Nick Plowman and Len Price. What resulted through Jerry’s streamlined organisation and leadership was one of the first, if not the first, one-stop breast clinics in the country. This was then copied by many other hospitals, becoming the template for what is now considered standard practice. It succeeded because Jerry had looked at the detail of how to process the various problems, leading to rapid diagnosis and best treatment. This strategy he also developed in the private sector, which was again highly successful and much copied by others. At around the same time as developing this rapid breast service, Jerry described ‘Gilmore’s groin’, a severe musculotendinous injury of the groin, leading to him having a large practice predominately of athletic young men from the football, rugby and athletic worlds. His approach was different to what had gone on before, with early surgical repair resulting in a more rapid recovery and successful earlier return to the sport for professional sportsmen – a vital improvement. As well as the loyalty that he gained from his trainees and staff, Jerry had a loyal cohort of referring doctors and in consequence a large number of very loyal patients. Of course Jerry had a fantastic sense of humour and had a strong belief that humour could be used positively in medicine to help patients In 1991 Jerry resigned from his NHS posts at Barts and Hackney: this certainly came as a huge blow to both institutions but was brought on by his frustration with the workings of the NHS and the demands of his huge practice that he had developed in Harley Street. Jerry’s success in the private sector continued and his workload both with outpatients and also in the operating theatre was massive. He was *the* man to go to for breast, groin and general surgery. Within the medical world Jerry was much in demand for every club, association or society one can imagine: his contribution to the Chelsea Clinical Society was significant, where he was president and a trustee. Likewise his attendance and presidencies of the St Albans Club and the Fountain Club ensured that that all present were in for an engaging and amusing evening. Jerry, on his resignation from Barts and Hackney, founded the Smithfield Surgical Research Society, again centred on Jerry’s fellowship and humour and formed of his former trainees. The above has touched on many of Jerry’s qualities – his intellect, his drive, his enthusiasm, his humour, his extraordinary generosity and his great loyalty to family and friends. He also had courage. He was never afraid to challenge the established way of performing medicine or surgery, or to innovate. But, above all, over his last five years was his phenomenal personal courage for the difficulties he faced in his prolonged series of illnesses. He was diagnosed as having an adenocarcinoma of the appendix in 2014, which had spread to his liver. Post operatively one would have thought he had just recovered from an ingrown toenail procedure. He knew exactly what he was in for and faced up to all the vicissitudes with the utmost bravery and always with humour. Throughout his long and difficult illnesses Jerry remained upbeat, committed to life and his large and loving family, but also to his friends and colleagues. There was never one ounce of self-pity during this very difficult time, which was full of troughs rather than peaks. This would not prevent him from attending overseas rugby internationals, parties, dinners and flying off with his family to the Caribbean, despite on occasion being very frail. Jane Gant, who had been working with him as a breast nurse, became Jerry’s second wife and they were to raise three daughters – Georgia, Octavia and Chiara. Jerry died on 13 November 2019 at the age of 77. Hilary, Jane and his nine children survived him. He is much missed by his family and by all those who had the good fortune to know him.