Robert ‘Bob’ Jackson was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Southampton from 1971 until his retirement in 1995. Having developed an interest in paediatric and spinal orthopaedics, he set up the scoliosis and spinal deformities unit at Southampton, the first such specialist unit in the south outside of London. This occurred at a time of rapid development in the various orthopaedic sub-specialities, which, with the academic stimulus of the newly established Southampton University medical school and the improved facilities of the new general hospital, enabled the scoliosis unit, under Robert’s leadership, to become one of the leading centres in the country. Robert Jackson was born on 26 February 1933 in Kendal, Westmorland. His grandfather, Thomas Ormandy, and father, John Kenneth Jackson, were solicitors in Milnthorpe. Earlier generations were yeoman farmers around Ulverston. Robert’s mother, Laura Theresa Jackson née Rankin, was the daughter of a Scottish pathologist involved in the elimination of anthrax. Robert grew up in Ackenthwaite, a hamlet near Milnthorpe. He attended Heversham Grammar School during the latter part the war and post war years, before entering Clare College, Cambridge in October 1951 to read medicine. His school years were exceptional, not only academically and by becoming head boy, but also athletically. As the 100 yards champion, he achieved a school record, as yet unbeaten. His speed on the rugby field promoted him to the school first XV from a young age. His interests extended to fell walking and Lakeland rock climbing and later alpine mountaineering. As a Cambridge undergraduate and in his clinical student years at St Thomas’s, Robert continued to play first team rugby, narrowly missing out on a blue. He passed his Cambridge medical finals in 1958, having had to re-sit surgery. After pre-registration house jobs in Southampton, he was appointed as an orthopaedic senior house officer to J I P James at the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital, Edinburgh. ‘Jip’, as he was known, had become established as the international doyen of scoliosis surgery. Robert did National Service in the RAF from November 1960. He was posted to the Cameroons during the plebiscite and then Aden as a junior specialist surgeon, where he found time to pass his primary FRCS and climb the Heim glacier of Mount Kilimanjaro. He signed on for a third year to gain experience in general and thoracic surgery at RAF Halton Hospital, leading to success in the final FRCS examination in 1964. Having decided to specialise in orthopaedics, he returned to the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital, Edinburgh on the new registrar rotation, one of the first training programmes of its kind, set up by J I P James, following Holdsworth’s model in Sheffield. During this period with Jip he met a number of visiting surgeons from the spinal deformity world, including the renowned John Moe of the Twin Cities Scoliosis Center, Minneapolis. After two years, Robert obtained a senior registrar post back at St Thomas’ under Ronnie Furlong, rotating initially to the familiar territory of the Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton and Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital, Alton, where elective children’s orthopaedic surgery was done. On returning to London, Robert was based at Lambeth Hospital with J R Armstrong, well known for his text book on lumbar disc surgery. The next move was to the Albert Einstein Hospital, New York, as a visiting fellow. Here he published experimental work on foetal opossums, having produced deformities akin to the human club foot, which favoured a postural rather than a genetic aetiology. Back in the UK, he became chief assistant to Ronnie Furlong who was then developing his own total hip replacement. In March 1971, Robert was appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Southampton, an appointment which included paediatric responsibilities. This enabled him to continue his interest in scoliosis and club feet. Through his involvement in the acute trauma rota, he was invited to be orthopaedic surgeon to Southampton Football Club and had the pleasure of watching the ‘Saints’ beat Manchester United to win the FA Cup at Wembley in 1976. His experience under Furlong with hip replacement surgery also enabled him to introduce this fairly new procedure as a routine, in collaboration with his local colleagues. In 1976, Robert became a founder member of the British Scoliosis Society. He travelled widely, to the USA to see John Moe and Robert Winter in Minneapolis, John Hall in Boston and later to Malmö, Sweden to visit Stig Willner, who became a close colleague. With this added stimulus, he set up the Southampton paediatric and adolescent scoliosis unit. He organised international spinal deformity conferences in association with the Scoliosis Research Society of the USA and similar European groups. In 1989 Robert became chairman of the British Scoliosis Research Society, prompting research projects into surgical spinal cord monitoring and bracing methods. Robert was president of the British Scoliosis Society from 1993 to 1994. In the early 1990s, due to his increased workload, a second consultant was appointed at Southampton. With a new local private hospital, there was also a greater demand for private care. The hindrance to all this was Robert’s longstanding back ailment, due to lumbar spondylolisthesis, which, although relieved by surgery in his twenties, had now relapsed reducing his operative stamina. He retired from the NHS and clinical practice in 1995 aged 62. Nick Boeree succeeded him. Retirement provided time for social activities, travel and his new orienteering interest. He became chairman of the Southampton Orienteering Club. He was also chairman of the Lymington Hospital League of Friends. He supported St John’s Church, Boldre, where he was church warden for 11 years. Robert was, perhaps above all, a family man. He had met his future wife Margaret Elizabeth Dixon (Maggie) when she was a student nurse during his time as registrar in Edinburgh. They married in 1967 at Southampton. Maggie predeceased him in 2011. They had a daughter Emma and a son Robert, who is head of the sixth form at Ullswater Community College, Penrith. There are five grandchildren. Robert had many talents beyond his medical and athletic abilities. He was a natural chairman, able to listen and then summarise with a touch of humour where needed. He was a popular and congenial colleague. His literary skills are evident in his very readable autobiography, *Memoirs of a surgeon, climber and orienteer: “primus non nocere”* (Little Knoll Press, 2014). He died peacefully on 29 April 2022 aged 89.