Sir John Chalstrey was a consultant surgeon and senior lecturer at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He specialised in oesophageal and gastric cancer surgery, was an early adopter of minimally invasive surgery when it was introduced in the 1980s, and a founder member of the Society of Minimally Invasive General Surgeons. He was also an early adopter of flexible endoscopy and the first to establish an independent day-case endoscopy unit in London. John was born in Tipton, Staffordshire on 17 March 1931 to Leonard Chalstrey and Frances Mary Chalstrey née Lakin, both school teachers. John went to Dudley Grammar School, where he excelled not only in his academic studies but also in cross-country running. He joined the Tipton Harriers, where his grandfather had served as a vice president, running competitively as a junior in the 440 and 880 yards to county level. He went on to read medicine at Queens’ College, Cambridge in 1951 and then to St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London, where he completed his clinical training, qualifying as a doctor in 1957. He undertook several training posts in London, including a lectureship in anatomy at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School and then research fellow and senior registrar in transplant surgery at the Royal Free, when he wrote his MD thesis on thyroid cancer. In 1969, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon and senior lecturer at Barts. Thus, John was a ‘Barts man’ through and through, but he was different from many of his surgical predecessors. He was a modest and unassuming man, quietly spoken and always polite and courteous in his interactions with other hospital staff irrespective of their position or seniority. He was a delightful colleague and always put patients at the centre of his practice. John was proud of his heritage as a son of the industrial West Midlands, sometimes referred to as the ‘Black Country’; once said to be ‘a place where even the birds cough’. To my ear, he never lost the appealing warmth and softness of his Tipton accent, which re-affirmed for me the inner contentment he had with his origins. During John’s early consultant years, Barts began to work more closely with district general hospitals, initially the Hackney Hospital and then the Homerton. John was one of the Barts team that willingly took on additional responsibilities outside the ‘marble halls’ of a teaching hospital. His surgical trainees refer to him as a ‘wonderful teacher and surgical guide’ and felt valued and well cared for. One trainee recalled John’s response when he failed the fellowship examination at the first attempt. ‘People who pass that exam first time are never much good – and so I assure you that when you do pass next time round – you will have joined the League of Gentlemen!’ Kindness and reassurance at a time of great need. Despite his unerring commitment to surgery and clinical practice, John had several other strings to his bow. Practising at Barts within the City of London, he developed a profound interest in the workings of the City of London Corporation and its livery companies. He was a member of both the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries (master from 1994 to 1995) and the Worshipful Company of Barbers (master from 1998 to 1999). His engagement with the City went even further, being elected as alderman of Vintry ward (in 1984) and subsequently as sheriff (from 1993 to 1994) of the City of London. He served as the 668th Lord Mayor of London (from 1995 to 1996), following which he was knighted. He was the first surgeon to be elected Lord Mayor and only the second medical doctor to take on this role, the first being Sir Thomas Boor Crosby, a medical officer for insurance companies, in 1911. During the year of his mayoralty, his beloved Barts Hospital came under threat of closure. The Save Barts Campaign was launched and, presumably through skilful negotiation mediated by the Lord Mayor, a group of campaign protesters was permitted by the court of common council to join the parade of the Lord Mayor’s Show. He and the Lady Mayoress, his wife Aileen (née Bayes), a pharmacist (they met as youngsters at the St Matthew’s Church Youth Club in Tipton, but did not marry until John had finished his studies) travelled across the world during the mayoralty. They met many heads of state that year, perhaps the most notable being Nelson Mandela during his state visit to the UK in 1996, when John bestowed upon the president the honorary Freedom of the City of London. This was followed by a momentous return visit to South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe a few months later, when they met Nelson Mandela again and their friendship was rekindled. John had a lifelong interest in military medicine. He undertook National Service (from 1949 to 1951), serving in the Welsh regiment and as a sergeant instructor in the Royal Army Educational Corps. He went on to serve in the Territorial Army and was an honorary colonel of the City of London Field Hospital of the Royal Army Medical Corps. He took on many voluntary roles, including surgeon-in-chief of St John Ambulance, chancellor of City University, London and was made a knight of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in 1995. John was a friend and colleague at Barts, but his greatest act of friendship was to arrange a special occasion at the Guildhall when he conferred upon me the Freedom of the City of London during the year of his mayoralty. This was not a random event as he had carefully planned the future, stating clearly after I had signed the book and we had enjoyed a glass of sherry, that I should now join a livery company and he had decided that it should be the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. As they say, ‘the rest is history’. I was extremely sorry that Sir John was not well enough to join us for my installation as master in 2019 some 23 years later. John and Aileen had two children, Susan, an ENT surgeon, and Jonathan, a management consultant specialising in transforming business cultures; between them they produced five much-loved grandchildren. John enjoyed retirement, spending time in his garden and returning to an earlier love of painting in oils. Sir John Chalstrey died on 12 March 2020. He was 88.