Anthony Victor Hirsh was born in London on 16 August 1945. He was the eldest child of Bernard, a designer and tailor, and his wife, whose maiden name was Biber. After early education at Hamlet Court Road Primary School in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, he attended Westcliff High School where he was a member of the *30* club. He studied medicine at Westminster Medical School (with an entrance scholarship in 1965 and a Nuffield travelling scholarship in 1967) and graduated MB, BS from King’s College London in 1968. At the Westminster Hospital he was mentored by Harold Ellis, to whom he was house surgeon in 1968, and the following year he was a resident obstetric assistant. He acknowledged the influence of several obstetric surgeons at the Westminster: Sir Arthur Bell, Arthur Briant Evan and Roger de Vere. In 1970 he moved to Guy’s as a lecturer in anatomy and worked with the cardiac surgeon Donald Ross. Other house jobs followed at King’s, St Peter’s Hospital, and the Institute of Urology in London as he began to specialise in andrology. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1973 and became a consultant general surgeon at Whipps Cross Hospital. Eventually he became a consultant in the andrology clinic at the Wanstead Hospital and also ran a private practice in Wimpole Street. He was a member of the BMA, the RSM and the British Andrology Society. In 1972 he married Miss Richman and they had a daughter, Nicole Joanne. Outside medicine he enjoyed riding and electronics. He died on 30 March 2018 aged 72.