Charles Edwin Drew (15 December 1916 – 31 May 1987) was a British cardiothoracic surgeon best known for assisting Sir Clement Price Thomas in King George VI's pneumonectomy in 1951.

[1] Drew completed his junior surgical posts at Westminster hospital, where he also formed close associations with G T Mullalley and Sir Clement Price Thomas.

On 23 September 1951, he assisted Price Thomas, along with Peter Jones with the pneumonectomy on King George VI.

[1] The body temperature was lowered to such a point where cardiovascular arrest could just about be tolerated for the time necessary to carry out the heart operation.

Drew was convinced that much of the high mortality in cardiac surgery was due to a problem with the oxygenator systems.

Converting an old billiard room on the 6th floor of Westminster hospital into a research laboratory, Drew observed "A small number of experiments was sufficient to show that, using simple apparatus, it is possible to induce profound hypothermia in a dog, followed by complete circulatory arrest for 30 minutes, and then to rewarm it with recovery."

[3][5] Drew was invited to present the Hunterian lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1961.