Professor Michael W L Gear, former Consultant Surgeon in Gloucester, died peacefully at home on Monday 29^th January 2024 at the age of 90. He had been the foremost and most eminent Consultant Surgeon of his generation in Gloucestershire. He was a pioneer of endoscopy in Gloucestershire and was also in the vanguard of the development of laparoscopic surgery in the UK. He performed the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy in the county in 1991.

Mike’s skills were not only in the development of surgery, but he also had considerable administrative and academic prowess. Indeed he was central to the development of the collaboration of Gloucestershire Hospitals with Cranfield University, which bestowed a Professorship upon him in 1996. He had major involvement in many national institutions and Societies, especially the BSG, and was the Vice-President for Endoscopy of the BSG in 1993-5.

Professor Neil A Shepherd, Professor of Gastrointestinal Pathology, Gloucestershire Cellular Pathology Laboratory, Cheltenham, Glos, GL53 7AN; neil.a.shepherd@nhs.net

Mike Gear at the helm in his yacht on Loch Sunart, Scotland.