He was the Director of the Boot and Equipment Factory for period of time and encouraged his manager B.M.Das to organise the Bengal Tanning Institute. He died in Giridih on 18 May 1943 aged 81. An obituary published in the British Medical Journal on 5 June 1943 stated, "The death in Calcutta of Sir Nilratan Sircar, at the great age for a Bengali of 81, has removed a leading member of the medical profession in India.” On 26 June 1918, Dr. Sircar received a knighthood for his contributions to medical education. Sircar was awarded the honorary DCL and LLD degrees by the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh respectively. In 1940, the University of Calcutta conferred on him the D.Sc. degree. After his death, his alma mater, the Campbell Medical School was renamed Nilratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital. In 1931, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation felicitated him as "an eminent physician of this great city (who) has taken active part in the public life of the country for over half a century and has rendered invaluable service in various spheres of public activity.”