Born on September 27th, 1839, the youngest of three sons of Henry John Langton, a wholesale chemist, and of Anne Earnshaw Ellis, the daughter of John Ellis. He was born at Denmark Hill, on the site now occupied by King's College Hospital, and was sent to the Church Hill School at Brighton, then kept by the Rev Dr Butler, where he remained from 1849-1852. From Brighton he went to Cassel, where he lived in the house of the Court Chaplain from 1853-1856, attending school and learning German. In 1857 he was articled to John Henry Hewer, his brother-in-law, who practised in Highbury New Park. In the same year he matriculated at the London University and entered as a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Here he dressed for Edward Stanley (qv), for whom he had a warm affection. In 1862 he passed the 1st MB examination for the University of London, but never completed the course. In 1861 he became a MRCS Eng, and then was appointed House Surgeon to Sir William Lawrence (qv). Shortly afterwards Langton began to coach in anatomy; he soon made his mark as a successful teacher, and in 1865 was appointed Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical School. In 1868 he was elected Assistant Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital on the resignation of Thomas Wormald (qv). In addition to his work as Demonstrator of Anatomy, he was Demonstrator of Operative Surgery and Demonstrator of Diseases of the Eye in conjunction with George Callender (qv). In 1873 he became Joint Lecturer in Anatomy with Sir Thomas Smith, and Demonstrator of Diseases of the Ear and Surgeon in Charge of the Aural Department. In 1881, on the retirement of Luther Holden, he became full Surgeon, holding that office till 1904, when he retired on reaching the age limit of 65, and was made Consulting Surgeon and a Governor of the hospital. In 1864 Langton was appointed Surgeon to the City of London Truss Society and held that post for forty-three years, retiring from it only three years before his death. At first he was the junior colleague of John Abernethy Kingdon (qv), a godson of John Abernethy, for whom he had an immense admiration. Later he worked with Jonathan Macready, W McAdam Eccles, and G E Gask as his juniors. This work he never tired of: he attended the Truss Society at Finsbury Square six mornings a week, leaving his home at 8 am, travelling by the Metropolitan Railway from Portland Road to Moorgate Street Station. In this way he acquired an unrivalled experience of hernia, of which he said in 1908, at the Medical Society of London, that he had seen about 250,000 cases. In addition to these activities, Langton was also Consulting Surgeon to the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases, to the City of London Lying-in Hospital, to the Prince of Wales's Hospital, to the Mildmay Mission Hospital, to the Friedenheim Home for the Dying, to the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, and to the London Female Guardian Society. At the Royal College of Surgeons he filled many positions. He was a Member of the Board of Examiners in Anatomy and Physiology from 1880-1884, and a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1884-1894. He was Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology in 1889-1890 ; a Member of the Council from 1890-1906, a Junior Vice-President in 1896, and Senior Vice-President in the centenary year of 1900. He was Bradshaw Lecturer in 1900, when he took as his subject, "The Association of Inguinal Hernia with Descent of the Testis". Langton was an active member of the Medical Societies, filling many offices at the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, at the Medical Society, of which he was President in 1904 and later Treasurer, and at the Clinical Society. In 1871 he married Sophia, the second daughter of John Scott, JP, of Dulwich and afterwards of Bickley, by whom he had six children, of whom three sons and two daughters survived him. John Langton was a fine upstanding man, six feet in height, rather portly late in life, clean-shaven, with fine-cut features and a mobile mouth. His parents being evangelical puritans, he was brought up, in the manner of those times, to observe the Sabbath strictly and to regard the theatre with abhorrence. This early training coloured his life and led him to be regarded by those who knew little of him as hypocritical. This he was far from being, he enjoyed life to the full, and with his ready smile and generous help endeared himself to his friends and patients. As a teacher he was first-rate. He was at his best in the wards and out-patient department, where with question and answer, and many a jest and story, he would keep a large class of students interested for two to three hours at a time. When he entered the lecture theatre his manner changed, and he became pedantic and dull. He was an excellent surgeon, devoted to his work, and imbued with the principle that the patients of the hospital are individuals, each with his own body and soul and wants and cares, to be treated kindly as men and women and not as cases. Every day of the week he came to hospital, including Sundays, and if he could catch his house surgeon in bed on Sunday morning he was delighted. As a researcher, as a pioneer in advancing the knowledge of science and of surgery, and as an author Langton was not so successful. His knowledge of hernia was unrivalled - he probably saw more cases of hernia than any living man - and he had at his command a mass of notes and of information. He intended to write a book on the subject and to give the world something out of the store of his experience, but death came and the work had not been done. He died on September 4th, 1910, after some two years of failing health, and was buried at the East Finchley cemetery. Publications: Langton edited the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th editions of Holden's *Manual of the Dissection of the Human Body*. *The Association of Inguinal Hernia with Descent of the Testis*.- Bradshaw Lecture, Dec 12th, 1900. Editor of *St Bart's Hosp Rep*, 1881-6, xvii-xxii. Articles on "Hernia" in Heath's *Dictionary of Surgery*.