From any angle Stuart Marshall was a remarkable man. Born at Turramurra, NSW in 1900 he graduated in medicine at the University of Sydney in 1925. The formative years 1925 to mid-1928 were spent at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, as house physician, outpatients’ registrar, medical registrar and officer in charge of the anti-tuberculosis dispensary, deputy superintendent and assistant superintendent. He was appointed medical superintendent at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney and held that post from July 1928 to December 1930. During 1931 he worked as a medical officer with the Repatriation Commission in Perth WA, after which he engaged in general practice at Pinjarra WA for four years.

While there was no evidence of any strong interest in the specialty prior to 1935, in 1936 he went to England, Germany, Canada and the USA with the avowed intention of studying anaesthetics. Throughout his professional life he participated in all of the truly remarkable advances in anaesthesia; with the late Harry Daly he was the first to use relaxant drugs clinically in Australia. He was a great champion of the notion of anaesthesia as a viable specialty and was the first to break with the stultifying practice of the surgeon being responsible for (and deciding upon) the anaesthetist’s fee.

The list of hospitals with which he was associated is a veritable catalogue: Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington, Randwick Auxiliary Hospital (thoracic), Sydney Hospital, St Vincent’s Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (neurosurgery), United Dental Hospital and Balmain District Hospital. Undoubtedly his greatest contribution was in the field of neurosurgery with Douglas Miller at St Vincent’s. He was a foundation Fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and for a time was a member of the court of examiners for the final FFARACS, a post he used to claim enabled him to gain a lot of knowledge from the candidates in a good year!

He was rather a lonely person for, although admired and respected unreservedly by all who knew him, he did not encourage close friendships with his rather forbidding manner. His marriage was not a happy one in later years, though he was proud of the fact that both his daughter and his son were medical graduates.

Apart from anaesthetics his other great love was the English language about which he was quite pedantic. As co-authors of one paper, although there was complete agreement between us about the scientific content, we did not reach even a compromise on the syntax and punctuation. Most of us cherish his memory for he was a great man in his own particular way.