‘You can teach a monkey to operate, but you can’t teach a monkey when not to operate.’ Many, especially on the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies’ training courses, will remember John Garfield’s pithy one-liners. That was the epitome of John – serious, but everything had to be fun and worth doing. John Garfield was a consultant neurosurgeon at the Wessex Neurological Centre, Southampton University Hospitals Trust. He was born in Paddington, London on 13 February 1930. His father, Montagu Garfield, was a medical and dental practitioner; his mother was Marguerite Garfield née Elman. He was educated at Claremont Preparatory School and Bradfield College, and then Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where, after of the two years’ pre-clinical course, he went down to London to finish his undergraduate clinical education and embark on his early medical training at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. Like many of his generation, there was a stint of National Service, which he thoroughly enjoyed as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps at Tidworth Barracks and Nicosia in Cyprus, where his wicket keeping took precedence over learning to fire a pistol. After qualifying in 1951, house jobs and registrar rotations centred on London, chiefly at St Mary’s, the Royal London Orthopaedic Hospital and St James’ Hospital, Balham. There was also a short time doing obstetrics in Dublin, which he often recalled with great affection, reminiscing about going out to calls on rickety bicycles with his great friend Colin Ruck. Specialist training was undertaken in London, at the National Hospital, Queen Square, the Whittington and St George’s hospitals and at the Wessex Neurological Centre, Southampton, as well as at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital, then on Copse Hill in Wimbledon, where he worked for Wylie McKissock. John was appointed as a consultant neurosurgeon at the Wessex Neurological Centre in Southampton in 1968. Along with Jason Brice, John worked tirelessly to put it on the map both in terms of a centre of excellence for training, but also in producing academic output. John’s approach to management was far ahead of its time in many ways, adopting an ethos of trust and mutual respect for all in the team, including all nursing and support staff; he had a deep, innate understanding of the concept of the team but also the importance of making sure trainees were safe for independent practice. It was with this in mind that John, along with Rab Hide and Glenn Neil-Dwyer, developed the Society of British Neurological Surgeons’ *Safe neurosurgery* policy in 1993, which was referred to by the neurosurgical section of the Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes. John’s own academic output is reflected in his 52 journal and other publications, including book chapters in the *Northfield’s surgery of central nervous system* (second edition, Edinburgh, Blackwell Scientific, 1987) and on boxing in the *Oxford illustrated companion to medicine* (Oxford, Oxford University Press), as well as articles in *The Lancet*, the *British Medical Journal*, the *Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine* and *Acta Neurochirurgica*. There were also many invited lectures (119 in all), ranging from a lecture on ‘The eye, the brain and the camera’ in Rome in 1993 in recognition of his significant contribution to neurosurgery, to lectures in Cairo, Kuopio, Wroclaw, Chennai, Trivandrum and Karachi. John was fascinated by the processes of the law, and his involvement in the Medical Defence Union provided an intellectually stimulating opportunity to work closely with the profession. He was a member of the council of the Union from 1977 to 1999 and a member of the board of management from 1991 to 1995. He relished the to and fro of negotiation, hunting for the nub of an issue, and giving evidence to the court. This aspect of his neurosurgical career led to the publication of several articles in the *Medico-Legal Journal* as well as two books – *Dilemmas in the management of the neurological patient* (Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone, 1984) and *More dilemmas in the management of the neurological patient* (Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone, 1987), written with Charles Warlow, professor of medical neurology, Edinburgh. John was president of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons from 1990 to 1992, secretary of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies from 1983 to 1987, an honorary civilian consultant adviser in neurosurgery to the Army Medical Services and an invited member of the council of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1990 to 1993. It was whilst at St Mary’s that John’s passion for photography really took hold, having access to an enlarger in the anatomy department for the first time. This other life’s work threaded through his adult life and was the reason for his early retirement in 1992 – to pursue a photographic career properly; and indeed he did, with exhibitions and books, one of which, *The fallen: a photographic journey through the war cemeteries and memorials of the Great War, 1914-18* (London, Leo Cooper, 1990) (now in its fourth edition), was the culmination of his lifelong project to photograph the cemeteries of the First World War. John’s penmanship was given free rein in that endeavour as he also wrote the text and became steeped in the First World War poets and writers. His photographic career was marginally longer than his neurosurgical one with his final exhibition to mark 100 years of Armistice Day at University of Southampton in November 2018. John died on 8 April 2019 at the age of 89 and was survived by Agnes (née Teleki), his wife of 57 years, three daughters – Stephanie, Johanna and Marie-Claire – and six grandchildren.