A retired surgeon once regarded as the fastest operator on the east coast has died.

Julian Sansom, who used to work at the James Paget hospital, died suddenly at his home on December 29.

He was born in London and did his medical training at St Thomas’s Hospital in the city.

After house jobs, he spent a year as medical officer in the Antarctic.

Later he was a surgical registrar at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital renal unit in Birmingham, before becoming senior surgical registrar on the professorial unit there.

He was appointed consultant surgeon with a special interest in urology to the Great Yarmouth and Waveney Health District in 1980, at the age of 40, which led to the development of an excellent urological service with the assistance of his three colleagues.

Regarded as the fastest operator on the east coast, he had a special interest in endocrine surgery and did most of the operations on parathyroids.

Initially, he was based in Lowestoft, but transferred most of his sessions to the new District Hospital when it opened in December 1981.

He continued an outpatient clinic in Lowestoft for many years.

Mr Sansom was a district surgical tutor for the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 1981 to 1992, as well as chair of the Surgical Division and chair of the Medical Staff Committee.

He was the first clinical director of the Surgical Division and served on multiple committees.

He was also an honorary lecturer at the Cambridge University Medical School.

Among his publications was the 'Outcome of 250 Cadaveric Renal Transplants', published in the British Medical Journal in 1975.

He retired in February 2005, at the age of 65, and devoted his time to gardening, carpentry, reading history and cosmological theory.

Mr Sansom was married to Catherine and they had a son, Nathan, and a daughter, Naomi.

Former colleague Hugh Sturzaker said he was "a hard-working and accomplished surgeon".    

Mr Sturzaker said: "He got on very well with his surgical colleagues, nurses, technicians and other staff. 

"He had a quiet sense of humour and was devoted to his family.  

"He was very skilled at DIY and was extremely good at woodwork.  

"He will be sadly missed and many ex-patients will be grateful for the care he showed them."