Hugh Hill Lawson (known as Buddy) was a professor of surgery and chief surgeon and head of the department of surgery at the Baragwanath Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa. He was born on 13 January 1926 and studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits). Subsequent training in general surgery was undertaken in the United Kingdom, and he gained his FRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1956. He then returned to South Africa to become a consultant surgeon in the department of surgery at Wits, where he was to stay throughout his long and distinguished academic surgical career. In the department, Buddy was highly regarded as a caring trainer of surgeons, a sought after mentor and supervisor and as an insightful academic. He developed a lifelong interest in gastroduodenal diseases and contributed substantially to the early understanding of peptic ulcer disease. His early research interests resulted in him obtaining a MCh in 1965 and being awarded a DSc in 1970. During his career, he supervised the postgraduate work of a number of surgeons who have subsequently become highly regarded academics at universities across the world. As a surgeon, Buddy worked at many of the teaching hospitals associated with the university. In 1971, he was appointed as professor of surgery and chief surgeon and head of the department of surgery at the Baragwanath Hospital. This hospital, now known as the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, lies on the outskirts of Soweto. At the time of Buddy’s appointment, this very large but under resourced hospital exclusively cared for black patients. With the help of others, Buddy is credited for having ensured that the hospital’s surgical services, including an overwhelming trauma load, were efficiently run despite the extensive limitations, until his retirement in 1991. Julien Oettle recalled ‘…in the more than 30 years Buddy dedicated to working at the Baragwanath hospital…he facilitated its steady development from a little more than a vast dressing station into a world-class academic institution’. This is a major part of his legacy within the department and the surgical community in South Africa. In addition, together with his successor at Baragwanath hospital, he collaborated with the biomedical industry to build what remains the premier burns unit in the country. Because of his reputation as a teacher, clinician and researcher, he was invited to deliver many lectures both nationally and internationally. He supervised multiple MMed, MSc and PhD students during his career. He authored over 75 publications and contributed eight chapters to surgical books. He always had an enquiring mind and was a regular attendee at the department of surgery’s weekly academic meeting, which he continued to attend into his nineties. He was an early member of the Surgical Research Society of South Africa and contributed to its activities over the years, as well as being its president from 1989 to 1990. Buddy Lawson died on 14 March 2019 at the age of 93 after a long illness. He is remembered by many for being a meticulous surgeon, hard-working, friendly and one who led by consensus and persuasion rather than domination and force. He gave a real sense of the continuity of surgical tradition, where not merely operative technique but attitudes, values and approach were all passed on through long apprenticeship. Many of us surgeons at Wits learnt much from this gentle surgical giant. He was also known for his skill as a cabinetmaker of extraordinary competence. This was at the centre of who he was, with his other craft, surgery. In the department of surgery at Wits we give thanks for his long and fruitful life, grieve with his family, and salute an extraordinary academic surgeon.