1Gordon Jackson Rees, known to all his friends as ‘Jack’, was born on 8 December 1918. He was educated at Oswestry School and entered the University of Liverpool to study medicine in 1937, and qualified M.B.Ch.B. in late 1942. His scholastic achievements, by his standards, were modest and gave little hint of his later academic brilliance and practical innovative ability. Early in 1943, Jack was called up into the Royal Air Force medical branch and served as a station medical officer before being sent to the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, to study anaesthesia under Professor Robert Macintosh and William Mushin. He obtained the one part Diploma in Anaesthetics in 1946. He became a consultant anaesthetist to the Royal Liverpool Hospitals in 1949 and, on the invitation of Professor Cecil Gray, joined the new University Department of Anaesthesia as a part-time demonstrator. Together, using different drugs to produce specific effects, they introduced the revolutionary concept of the ‘triad of anaesthesia’. Shortly afterwards, Jack was persuaded to assist Miss Forshall, a paediatric surgeon, to develop paediatric anaesthesia. The so-called Jackson Rees technique of paediatric anaesthesia initially developed as a result of his experiences in adult anaesthesia and an intense desire to humanise the management of children in hospital. In 1950, he published a seminal article in the British Medical Journal on Neonatal Anaesthesia. This technique soon became known throughout other paediatric centres and, as a result, Jack was invited to lecture and demonstrate at many national and international meetings. He travelled widely visiting many centres as a visiting Professor and invited lecturer, was made a member of a large number of prominent learned societies and was presented with many prestigious awards in this country and abroad. He was extremely popular and became well known as a superb speaker, a witty panellist and a persuasive debater. His writings are a model of lucidity and a pleasure to read, though Jack confessed that he was ‘a reluctant writer’. He was elected a Fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons, Fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, and Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health; not bad as Jack remarked, for someone who had only sat one postgraduate degree examination! He was awarded the Medal of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Frederick Hewitt Medal of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Henry Hill Hickman Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine, London, the John Snow Medal of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland and the Robert M. Smith Award of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He was particularly proud to have been a guiding founder member and later a President of the Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland and also the first President of the federation of Association of European Associations of Paediatric Anaesthesia. The recognition of his achievements was not confined solely to the field of medicine. He was made an honorary citizen of the ancient university city of Coimbra, Portugal, and in 1998, he was recognised by the Athenaeum club as only one of five distinguished citizens of Merseyside for his contribution to the welfare of children; unique awards for a unique man. His flair for appreciating the clarity of issues together with his modesty and courtesy made him eminently qualified for membership of numerous examining bodies for various university degrees and a natural President and Chairman of many important committees, both locally and nationally. Jack retired from active anaesthetic practice in 1983 but was quickly invited to be guest Professor of Paediatric Anaesthesia in the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, for a year. Jack loved life and fellowship. He was generous, genial and genuinely interested in everyone and gleefully admitted to being ‘a social animal’. He bore his last illness with characteristic good humour and immense fortitude. We shall all miss him dreadfully. Dr Jackson Rees died peacefully at home on Friday 19 January 2001. He leaves his wife, Elisabeth, a Consultant in Genito-Urinary Medicine, and four children, one of whom is Regius Professor of Medicine in the University of Aberdeen.