Alexander Lipmann-Kessel

Alexander Lipmann-Kessel, known by his nickname Lippy, was an orthopaedic surgeon born in Pretoria, South Africa, who served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Second World War. Attached to the 16th Parachute Field Ambulance, he took part in the Battle of Arnhem and is credited with saving the life of Brigadier John Hackett by operating on a severe abdominal wound at St. Elisabeth Hospital in Arnhem, a feat that Hackett's own memoir confirms. Taken prisoner by the Germans, he later escaped and told his story in the 1958 book Surgeon at Arms. After the war he became Emeritus Professor of Orthopaedics at the University of London, and he was buried in Oosterbeek civilian cemetery, close to the soldiers who died at Arnhem.