John Woodyard was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Stafford. He was born in London on 21 May 1931, the son of Harry Cyril Woodyard, a company director, and Caroline Victoria Woodyard née Wheeler. He was educated at Radley College, Clare College, Cambridge, and then Westminster Hospital Medical School. He qualified in 1956 and carried out his National Service in the Army. He went on to the Royal Marsden, and was then a surgical registrar in Bristol, Swindon and Oxford. He specialised in orthopaedics and became a senior registrar in Exeter. In 1970 he was appointed to his consultant post in Stafford. Over the years he helped expand the department, which now has nine consultants. He developed a particular skill in paediatric orthopaedics, especially hip problems. After he retired he became chairman of the postgraduate centre in Stafford and was a non-executive director of the trust board. Outside medicine he was interested in gardening and painting. John Woodyard died on 23 August 2007 from leukaemia. He was 76. He was survived by his wife Katie, an anaesthetist, and by two children - Ian and Jennifer.