The Old Diocesan Issue 13 - Magazine - Page 41
ROBERT GRAY
Pioneering paediatric transplant surgeon
Alastair Millar with his granddaughter
Cosima on Kommetjie Beach.
CHILDREN’S CHAMPION
Alastair Millar (1965W) was a natural
all-rounder at Bishops, excelling in
the classroom and in various sporting
arenas. He entered Bishops Prep in
1956 and matriculated as a prefect
in 1965, having captained the Prep
First XV and boxing teams, and won
the school’s Boxing Cup in his final
year. He was also vice-captain of
the College fencing team, a sport he
continued long after school, winning
titles at university, provincial and
national level, including the South
African National Sabre Championship
in 1973. That year, he also toured
Argentina with the national side,
earning his Springbok colours.
In time, Alastair became one of
the world’s foremost paediatric liver
transplant surgeons. After qualifying
with an MBChB at UCT in 1972 and
completing his surgical training in
the UK, he returned to the Red Cross
Children’s Hospital in 1980, becoming
a consultant in 1984. Invited to
establish a paediatric liver transplant
programme, he set up a world-leading
operation, saving five to seven children
a year from terminal liver failure by
1991. He also served on the surgical
teams that helped to separate 25
sets of conjoined twins. In 2002, he
performed South Africa’s first livingdonor liver transplant, in which a lobe
of the living donor’s liver is removed
and transplanted into the ill child.
He later transplanted a liver into
the smallest infant on record at
the time – just 4kg.
In 2004, he took up a professorship
at the University of Birmingham – the
first such paediatric transplantation
appointment in the UK – before
returning to South Africa in 2007
to head up paediatric surgery at
UCT and the Red Cross Children’s
Hospital. He’s been honoured with
the Sir Denis Browne Gold Medal,
paediatric surgery’s highest UK
accolade, and in 2023 received
the Rehbein Medal for lifetime
achievement from the European
Paediatric Surgeons’ Association.
He also served as president of the
Southern African Transplantation
Society, and of the College of
Paediatric Surgeons of South Africa.
Author of 300 peer-reviewed
articles and 45 textbook chapters,
Alastair is now retired and enjoys
spending time with his wife Sue,
sons James (1997O) and Christopher
(2000W), daughter Francesca, and
grandchildren Cosima and Francis.
Adapted from the formal Robert Gray
medallist citation.
THE OLD DIOCESAN | 37
