Shantilal Jamnadas Mehta (1905–1997) was an Indian surgeon, institution builder and medical academic, who established the Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai. His contributions were also reported in the establishment of Tata Memorial Centre and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. In 1971, the Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan for his contributions to medicine. Biography Mehta was born on 10 January 1905 in Surendranagar district in the Saurashtra of the Indian city of Gujarat. Due to lack of good educational facilities in his native town, he stayed with his maternal grandfather, Motilal Kothari, in Rajkot and did his schooling there. Later, when Kothari moved to Mumbai, Mehta followed him to continue his education there and it was during this time, he developed a fascination for ayurveda when he was cured by an ayurvedic physician from a life-threatening bout of dysentery, after allopathic treatment yielded no positive results. His graduate degree in medicine came from Grant Medical College and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Group of Hospitals, during which time he was also involved with the Indian independence movement and suffered incarceration at Colaba Police Station after he, along with five other activists, showed black flag at the visiting Simon Commission in 1927. Later, when he went to England for fellowship at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, his earlier involvement in the freedom struggle caused him many difficulties but he completed the fellowship, winning the Hallett Prize, the first Indian to receive the honour. Subsequently, he worked for 9 months at the Royal Brompton Hospital, at ENT, Orthopedic and general surgery departments, where he had the opportunity to train under several notable surgeons. On his return to India in 1930, he joined Grant Medical College, his alma mater, as a member of faculty and an honorary surgeon. During World War II, when British Army took over the hospital for treating armed personnel injured in the war, he was accorded the honorary rank of a Colonel, which he declined. He worked at the hospital, moving up through the ranks, from Associate Professor to Professor, till his superannuation in 1960, and continued his association with the institution for another ten years, in the capacity of the Emeritus Professor. While his tenure at GMC, he was also involved with the establishment of the Association of Surgeons of India in 1938 and the Tata