The accomplishments of Sir James Cantlie.

Abstract Sir James Cantlie succeeded in his diverse endeavours. A pioneer in first aid medicine in Britain, he wrote several important manuals on the topic. The interlude in Hong Kong set the stage for his role in Chinese history with his involvement with Sun Yat-Sen, the father of modern China, and in the establishment of the present Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. The contact with tropical diseases sustained a career that included the founding of the current Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the extant Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. As a surgeon, he argued for a new concept of hepatic lobulation based on the vascular supply, and became recognized as the father of the surgical anatomy of the liver. The scope of Cantlie's achievements is rivalled by few physicians, and his legacy remains with us to this day.