John James, always known as Jimmy, was a consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon who spent much of his career in Africa. He was born on 25 September 1940 in Lusaka, the fourth child of missionary parents. His father, Henrik Gerard James, was Dutch and a French Protestant pastor, trained at the Sorbonne. His mother, Grace James née Dunham, was English, a graduate of Oxford University and a teacher. They met in French West Africa. In 1947, the family returned from South Africa to Shrewsbury and Jimmy was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, originally founded for the sons of Methodist ministers by John Wesley in 1748. In 1959 Jimmy went up to St Andrews University to study classics, but asked in his first term to be accepted into the Bute medical school. He was advised by the dean to go down for a year and pass his scientific ‘O’ levels and he then started his pre-clinical training in 1960. During his student years, he was both president of the Bute Medical Society and of the Dundee Medical Society and earned the name of ‘perpetual president’ in the 1966 yearbook. After a year in St Andrews University as a demonstrator in anatomy, while he studied for his primary FRCS, he worked in Bristol, on a rotating registrars’ scheme. In 1969, he and his wife Judith (née Edwards), applied to join an Oxfam team working in Federal Nigeria during the Biafran War and asked for a three-month sabbatical do this. On his return, he was given a job as Ian Scott Smillie’s orthopaedic houseman at Bridge of Earn Hospital just outside Perth. From there he moved into a surgical rotation and it was while working with the plastic surgeon John Kirk that he decided to change to plastic and reconstructive surgery. In 1973, he and his family went to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Jimmy worked at ALERT (All Africa Leprosy Rehabilitation Training) doing reconstructive surgery in leprosy under the hand surgeon Ernest P Fritschi. Between 1975 and 1977, Jimmy completed his specialisation as a plastic surgeon at the Kommunehospital, Aarhus, Denmark, learning Danish in the process. Jimmy was convinced of the importance of doing humanitarian work, so in 1977 the family moved to Nairobi, Kenya, where Jimmy was to work until 1981. In that time, he worked with Amref and the Flying Doctor Service; he learnt to fly and to this day is one of only a handful of doctors who have flown themselves around East Africa, visiting leprosy hospitals in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and doing plastic and reconstructive surgery in Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, Moshi and Nairobi Hospital. He always said it was the best job in the world. There followed an important hiatus in his African career, when, for the education of his three children, the family returned to the United Kingdom. Jimmy first worked in the anatomy department at Dundee University as a demonstrator in anatomy, before becoming a consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Shotley Bridge and Sunderland in 1982. Jimmy threw himself into the work in the unit as it had suffered from many changes in consultants over the years. He became renowned for his skills in hand surgery and in cosmetic surgery (rhinoplasty and eyelids), both disciplines he had first learned in Africa with leprosy patients! During this period, Jimmy continued to do humanitarian work; he was the lead surgeon in the Sri Lankan Cleft Lip and Palate Project on two occasions in the 1980s and was the Rahima Dawood travelling fellow for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Association of Surgeons of East Africa in 1993. He also ran many basic surgical skills courses in Africa and in Edinburgh. In the early nineties, the Stagecoach bus company had a major accident in Malawi, resulting in many burns victims. The then chief executive, Ann Gloag, responded to appeals by local surgeons by building a burns unit for the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. Gloag had previously been a plastic surgery and burns theatre nurse at the Bridge of Earn Hospital in Tayside, Scotland and invited Howard Stevenson, a consultant plastic surgeon there, and Ina Falconer, a senior theatre nurse, to work with the surgeons at Blantyre to help establish the burns unit. The unit was officially opened in 1993, and in 1996 Jimmy enthusiastically accepted an invitation from Stevenson to take up the post of director of the unit. Over the next five years, he contributed hugely to the development of the unit and to the training of local surgeons and clinical officers, laying down the foundations for plastic surgery training with the help of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. On his death, a colleague wrote that Jimmy James was the unsung hero behind the start of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA). In the late 1990s, the idea of a regional African surgical college was being mooted. It had been an idea and an aspiration for at least a decade and, if not for Jimmy, it might have continued as one. In 1999, he was asked to set up and subsequently become the secretary general of COSECSA. With his broad experience of surgery in Africa, his personal acquaintance with surgeons in every COSECSA country and, especially, with his diplomatic but determined personality, Jimmy was the perfect choice for this role. He also played a crucial role in introducing plastic surgery as a higher surgical training programme in COSECSA. Without his conviction and belief in the development of such an important surgical field, plastic surgery would not have been recognised as a surgical specialty in the COSECSA region. The programme started in 2005 and, in December 2008, the first two trainees were examined for the fellowship in plastic and reconstructive surgery. COSECSA is now the largest surgical college in Africa, operating in more than 15 countries. Ninety per cent of the graduates remain practising in their own communities and countries, thereby fulfilling Jimmy’s original vision. In 2004 Jimmy was awarded a medal by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in recognition of his services to surgery in East, Central and Southern Africa, and to the college. Jimmy worked as an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s intercollegiate plastic surgery fellowship for many years, as well as being an external examiner for postgraduate surgery in Khartoum and Harare, an external examiner in plastic surgery in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and an external examiner for the COSECSA fellowship in plastic surgery. Over the course of his career, he published over 30 papers on burns and reconstructive surgery and wrote a chapter in *Primary surgery* (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1987). Jimmy was a man of integrity, compassionate and modest. He always combined great practical ability with kindness and thought, and most importantly influenced and improved the lives of those around him. He followed the careers of his trainees and attended Association of Surgeons of East Africa/COSECSA meetings right up until his death. His diplomacy, skill and commitment were exemplary. Jimmy retired to Perthshire, Scotland, where he lived a full and enjoyable life, going on road trips with Judith in his beloved Morgan, tending his garden, foraging for logs, sailing and always going on an annual pilgrimage to Kenya and East Africa. He enjoyed life with his three children and eight grandchildren. His death came unexpectedly at the end of 2019, when he succumbed to prostate cancer.