John Wingate Maltby was a general practitioner and surgeon in Tiverton, Devon. He was born in London in 1928, the son of Henry Wingate Maltby, a doctor. He was educated at Trinity College School, Ontario, Canada, and Marlborough College, and went on to Cambridge University and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. He qualified with the conjoint examination in 1954. He held house posts at Bart's and was a house surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, London. He also carried out his National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals. From 1961 to 1990, when he retired, he was a general practitioner in Tiverton and a clinical assistant in surgery at Tiverton and District Hospital. In his retirement he wrote two books - *A brief history of science for the citizen* (Tiverton, Halsgrove, 2003) and *A brief history of psychiatry* (Tiverton, Halsgrove, 2005). John Wingate Maltby died on 2 January 2009, aged 80.