Haripada Adhikary was an ophthalmologist at the Royal Preston Hospital. He was born in 1941 in pre-partition India in the small village of Rampal in the district of Khulna, the son of Upendra Nath Adhikary and Kalidasi Adhikary. He initially worked as a mathematics teacher, but later studied medicine in Calcutta at the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College, qualifying in 1967. He trained as an ophthalmologist in India and gained his diploma in ophthalmic medicine and surgery. He then went to the UK, where from 1971 to 1976 he was a senior house officer and then registrar at the Royal Preston Hospital. He was subsequently a registrar and then senior registrar at St Paul’s Eye Hospital in Liverpool and an honorary lecturer at Liverpool University. In July 1981 he was appointed as a consultant ophthalmologist in Preston. At Preston, he worked tirelessly to develop a modern ophthalmic department. He was an early adapter of excimer laser surgery from its beginning in the early 1990s and published several papers on the subject. He also trained juniors and was an honorary senior lecturer and visiting fellow at the University of Central Lancashire. Many benefited greatly from his teaching, enthusiasm and strong work ethic. Outside work he had numerous interests, including gardening, travelling, singing and writing poetry and songs in Bengali; he was a lyricist of songs for Kolkata and All India Radio. He also studied Hinduism and wrote extensively on the subject. Family and the wider community were extremely important to him. In 2004, he was awarded an MBE for his outstanding social, cultural and charity work in Bengal and the UK. Haripada Adhikary died on 4 December 2019 after a short illness. He was survived by his wife, Manju Adhikary, a daughter, Rina Adhikary, a son, Ratul Adhikary (all of whom are doctors) and their spouses, and will be missed by colleagues and the wider community.