Terence English was the surgeon who performed the first successful heart transplant in Great Britain on 18 August 1979 at Papworth Hospital. The first attempt on January 14, 1979 was not successful, the patient died after 17 days. The second patient, 52-year-old Keith Castle, survived more than five years after the transplant. Previously, three heart transplants in the UK in 1968 and 1969 resulted in the death of the recipients after 45, 2 and 107 days, leading to a moratorium on further operations. With his success, English secured the future of the heart and lung program at Papworth. He began his career in the diamond mines of South Africa, where at the age of 17 he drilled a record 42 meters with a single drill bit. He was for seven years master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. His mantra in life was "tenacity of purpose".