Sir Roy Yorke Calne FRS FRCS (30 December 1930 – 6 January 2024) was a British surgeon and pioneer in organ transplantation.

Roy Calne was born in Richmond, Surrey on 30 December 1930, to Joseph, a car engineer, and his wife Eileen (née Gubbay).

[1] In 1964, Calne visited Tulane University, New Orleans, to learn of Keith Reemtsma's experiences with transplanting kidneys from chimpanzees, and persuaded London Zoo to assist when he returned to England.

[3] In 1965 at Cambridge, he was appointed professor and chair of surgery, and teamed up with King's College liver specialist Roger Williams.

[9] In the late 1970s, with the help of the Agricultural Research Institute of Animal Physiology at Babraham, Calne worked on liver transplantation in pigs and began to experiment with the immunosuppressant ciclosporin A.

"[15] Calne was a Fellow of the Royal Society and was Professor of Surgery at Cambridge University between 1965 and 1998 where he initiated the kidney transplant programme.

As a medical student in London he would regularly visit art galleries to copy the works of great masters.

[18] In 1988 he performed a liver transplant on the Scottish painter John Bellany, who began to paint self-portraits while still in intensive care and had completed 60 during his hospital stay.

[18] Calne went on to paint some transplant patients, believing that it brought closeness and humanity to the surgeon-patient relationship, especially with children.

[19] The corresponding Lister Oration, given at the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 21 May 1985, is titled "Organ transplantation: from laboratory to clinic".

[1] Calne was a member and patron of Humanists UK[23] and he was an Honorary Vice-President of the Cambridge University Lawn Tennis Club.