Mini Hoshang Mehta, known as ‘Min’, was a giant in her specialist orthopaedic field of early onset scoliosis. She was born in Persia on 1 November 1926 into a Parsi family, and moved to India in early life. She was aged about 10 or 11 when a spinal deformity developed: her parents thought she was slouching and told her to sit up properly, seemingly her only treatment. The scoliosis regrettably became severe. After her schooling, Min attended medical school in Calcutta and enjoyed surgery, for which she had an aptitude. After three years of postgraduate surgical training in Calcutta, she moved to London in the mid-1950's to gain more experience. This was a difficult time to obtain a UK surgical training post as there was a backlog of time-expired surgical registrars and there were few women in surgery. Min recounted how she put in endless applications for surgical registrar posts over many months, to no avail. She was never shortlisted. Then a surgical registrar job came up at Ealing where the application form did not request gender. This did the trick. Assuming the applicant to be male, she was shortlisted, interviewed and was selected. Her original objective was to enter general surgery or paediatric surgery, however in her surgical training she moved to the Ealing orthopaedic unit, working with Philip Wiles from the Middlesex and John Batchelor from Guy’s – what better training could you have! The experience converted her into becoming an orthopaedic surgeon. Min burst onto the orthopaedic scene in 1969, after several years as a research assistant at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, having won the prestigious Robert Jones gold medal of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) in 1968. Her prize essay was on the value of measuring the rib-vertebra angle difference (RVAD) between the two sides of the sagittal plane at the curve apex on anteroposterior spinal X-rays of infants with idiopathic scoliosis as a prognostic sign as to whether the scoliosis was of the resolving or progressive type (a difference of more than 20 ͦ being indicative of progression). This test has become known worldwide as Mehta’s angle. She read a paper based on her Robert Jones award at the London BOA meeting in September 1969. It was well received as a scientific study and, after being corroborated in several centres, was celebrated as a breakthrough in diagnosing progressive early onset scoliosis, the most worrying type with its possible impairment of lung development, leading to premature death. The other notable aspect of Min’s presentation was its clarity, a facility evident in her many subsequent talks and lectures down the years. Her beguiling soft voice was always combined with a well-modulated delivery, spoken in perfect Queen’s English. Audiences, particularly in the USA, were enthralled by her. You could hear a pin drop. Min returned to India in 1969 as an orthopaedic surgeon working at the All-India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi and then in Calcutta. It was from there that she published her classic RVAD paper in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in 1972 (‘The rib-vertebra angle in the early diagnosis between resolving and progressive infantile scoliosis.’ J Bone Joint Surg Br. 1972 May;54[2]:230-243), followed the next year by a useful study on measuring vertebral rotation in severe spinal deformities (‘Radiographic estimation of vertebral rotation in scoliosis.’ *J Bone Joint Surg Br*. 1973 Aug;55[3]: 513-20). Min came back to London in January 1974, having been appointed senior lecturer to the Institute of Orthopaedics, London University to work with Charles Manning and Michael Edgar, who were then the consultants on the scoliosis unit at Stanmore. In subsequent years, as the scoliosis work expanded at Stanmore, the spinal orthopaedic team, working with Min, enlarged to include Tim Morley (from King’s College Hospital) and Andrew Ransford (from University College Hospital). After Charles Manning’s retirement in 1978, Peter Webb, who had sessions at Great Ormond Street, joined the group. From 1974 Min embarked on a number of research ideas and started a clinic for infantile scoliosis. She quickly gained a reputation, receiving patients from a wide area. She became a trustee of the newly formed Scoliosis Association of the UK. The International Zorab Symposia in Scoliosis at the Brompton, led by Phillip Zorab, a respiratory physician, go back to the mid 1960s and particularly involved the scoliosis teams of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and of the Institut Calot, Berck, France led by Yves Cotrel. In spring 1975, Phillip Zorab and Charles Manning organised a visit to the Institut Calot, attended by Min. Here she was introduced to the Cotrel frame, which she modified and used over subsequent years to apply moulded plaster casts in the correction of progressive infantile curves. She began a collaboration with George Morel, one of the surgeons from Berck and they published several important papers. Morel favoured bandage strapping under traction and slight flexion to derotate the spinal curve, whereas Min emphasised hand moulding of the setting plaster to effect correction. For many years, the Stanmore X-ray records department kept a comprehensive set of films of patients who attended from 1945. Min had examined several hundred X-rays of infantile scoliosis patients in her classic 1960s research. From the late 1970s, with Michael Edgar, she reviewed the films of all idiopathic curves in children, both operated and unoperated, who attended the scoliosis clinic from 1945 to 1965, of whom 168 were clinically reviewed. This paper on long-term follow-up was eventually published in 1988 (‘Long-term follow-up of fused and unfused idiopathic scoliosis.’ *J Bone Joint Surg Br*. 1988 Nov;70[5]:712-6). The experience of this research revealed to Min’s co-author her amazing resilience, stamina and thoroughness. Min’s cumulative work on treating progressive early onset scoliosis was published in 2005, a year following her retirement (‘Growth as a corrective force in the early treatment of progressive infantile scoliosis’ *J Bone Joint Surg Br*. 2005 Sep;87[9]:1237-47). As a result of serial plasters, 94 of 136 children, followed prospectively, were cured of their spinal deformity, without relapse during pubertal growth. Those children whose curve progressed during adolescence and those too severe for plaster correction were referred for surgery. Again, this study is a credit to her thoroughness. Min travelled a good deal in her career, especially later on. The Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) of the USA records that she was invited as a guest lecturer ten times to their conferences, possibly a record. At one SRS meeting in Denver she demonstrated her exercise tolerance by outperforming her colleagues in a walk at 12,000 feet. On a lecture trip to Riyadh, Min was stopped at the border and refused entry on the basis that she was a single, unaccompanied woman. She offered herself in instant marriage to a colleague travelling with her and chose to make it clear to the colonel in charge of border control exactly how ladies should be treated. Min’s steely determination won through. The other important aspect of her international standing was her close liaison with Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who relied on Min for medical opinions. Like much in Min’s outstanding career, it did not receive the public recognition that was due. After retirement Min’s charm ensured her popularity among local friends in Twickenham, with whom she enjoyed walking, attending concerts, watching Wimbledon tennis and partaking in a local book club (she was an avid reader). She continued to drive her classic Mini Cooper. Age eventually took its toll and her activities slowed, but only in her last year or so. She died peacefully at her home in Teddington, Middlesex on 23 August 2017 aged 90. She was a delightful colleague.