Major general Norman Kirby was a military surgeon and director of clinical services, accidents and emergencies, at Guy’s Hospital, London. *On wings of healing* (Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood & Sons) by Howard Cole is the definitive account of the airborne medical services from their beginning in 1940 to 1960. It was published in 1963, in a maroon binding reflecting the regimental colours of the airborne forces. On page 218, Cole records that on 5 November 1956, during the Suez Crisis, a parachute surgical team led by the unit surgeon, captain Norman Kirby, dropped on El Gamil airport in Egypt and set up a casualty collecting post and operating theatre. Kirby was soon busily engaged. This particular conflict, Operation Musketeer, described by Kirby as ‘a political disaster but a surgical success’, brought to a conclusion the story of the beginnings of airborne medical services as told in the book. Norman Kirby, having entered the annals of British military surgical history, went on to serve it and the cause of trauma management in the United Kingdom for decades to come. Norman Kirby was born on 19 December 1926 in Coventry, the son of George William Kirby and Laura Kirby née Sparrow. He went to school at King Henry VIII School in Coventry and subsequently studied medicine at Birmingham University, qualifying in 1949. That year he married Cynthia Mary Bradley, commencing a long and happy marriage that produced a son, Robert, who also became a surgeon, and a daughter, Jill, a broadcaster and travel writer. Norman’s surgical training was undertaken in the NHS at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Birmingham Accident Hospital and two years at the Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital, London, as well as in Army hospitals. He gained his FRCS in 1964. The early awakenings of the military side of his career first blossomed in 1948 when he became a member of the Territorial Army whilst still a student. After qualification, he became regimental medical officer to 10th Parachute Regiment and, following two years National Service, he decided to stay in the regular armed forces. In the subsequent years, he had plenty of opportunity to exercise his skills in trauma management coping with, amongst others, treating EOKA terrorist casualties in Cyprus and casualties of the officer’s mess bomb in Aldershot in 1972. In 1978, he was made director of Army surgery and honorary surgeon to the Queen and elevated to the rank of major general. He received the OBE in 1971 and the Order of Saint John in 1977. After leaving the Army in 1982, following a highly successful career, he returned to civilian life and the NHS as head of the accident and emergency department at Guy’s Hospital. He might have thought that this appointment would be busy but straightforward and surgically based, as indicated by his title of accident and emergency surgeon, but he soon found his experience of managing military casualties was also required in civilian life, dealing with casualties from terrorist bombs, train accidents and civilian disasters, notable amongst which was the sinking of the *Marchioness* boat on the River Thames (in 1989). The year 1992 was especially taxing, with three terrorist bomb explosions in the city centre and the London Bridge rail crash. His and his staff’s exemplary and kindly management of the victims of the Cannon Street rail disaster in 1991 was brought to the attention of the House of Lords by Lord McColl during a debate on the provision of major accident services in London. In subsequent years, it soon became apparent that his management skills and diplomacy were also needed in the machinations surrounding the ultimately successful transition of his specialty from being ‘casualty’, as represented by the Casualty Surgeons’ Association, to the newly-named, independent specialty of accident and emergency medicine with its own Royal College. He used his considerable experience to help bring this transition about, even though it is possible that personally he would have preferred to be a trauma surgeon in one of the newly developing centralised trauma centres of which he approved. He retired from Guy’s in 1993. Throughout the two principal phases of his career, he was heavily involved in educational activities. He edited and wrote several books on disasters and emergencies, including the 1981 edition of the *Field surgery pocket book* (London, HMSO), treasured by generations of military surgeons, and gave lectures on the management of injury and disasters in the United Kingdom and overseas. He was an examiner for the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and of Edinburgh. He was also active in medical societies and livery companies, holding office in many. Needless to say, he received honorary fellowships from colleges and learned societies. He was particularly proud of the award of the Mitchener medal by the Royal College of Surgeons in 1982. Norman Kirby died on 25 July 2019 aged 92. Predeceased by his wife, he was survived by his son and daughter.