Born 6 December 1842, son of James Moncrieff Arnott, professor of surgery at King's College, London, and President of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1850 and 1859, Henry Arnott was educated at University College School and at University College, London. He held the post of house surgeon and resident physician's assistant at University College Hospital and then acted as clinical assistant at the Consumption Hospital, Brompton. He was elected surgeon to the Great (now the Royal) Northern Hospital but does not seem to have taken up the duties of the office. From 1866 to 1869 he was surgical registrar and superintendent of post-mortems at the Middlesex Hospital and was elected assistant surgeon in 1870. He acted as dean of the medical school, teacher of bandaging and minor surgery, and joint lecturer on pathology. It is of this period that he writes: "I remember when I was dean of the Middlesex Hospital medical school two lady doctors from America asked to be admitted as students. I was very much non-plussed. I was very young indeed and did not know what the law was. I pointed out some of the difficulties that might arise because the students might possibly resent their presence. I said I was too young to decide and must appeal to the Governors of the Hospital. They said 'No', but left me to deal with the matter. The ladies insisted on joining. What was the result? I got into such a row. The first day they came to the operating theatre all the students cleared out and I did the two or three operations with the ladies looking on. The next day the ladies went into the dissecting room - again the students left; the two ladies sat down calmly and began to dissect, but after about a week they went away and their fees were returned". He was elected assistant surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital on 6 July 1871, and resigned the post in 1876 having determined to take orders in the Church of England. Arnott had long been interested in the work of the Church and in October 1864 had helped to found a Brotherhood of St Luke with Reginald Eager, John Wickham Legg, Charles Frederick Lethbridge, and George William Rigden, who were all, like himself, medical students. On 2 November 1864 Robert Brett was chosen provost and Henry Arnott master of the brotherhood, which subsequently became well known as the Guild of St Luke. Arnott lived at Beckenham whilst he was surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital, and was there appointed a lay reader under the Rev William Cator, the rector. In. 1877 he entered the Chichester Theological College, was ordained deacon in 1878 by Archbishop Archibald Tait and was licensed to the curacy at Beckenham where, being ordained priest in 1879, he remained until 1884. Dr Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester appointed him vicar of Bussage, Gloucestershire, and he held the cure only until 1885 when he was presented to the living of Beckenham by a private patron. Here he remained for thirty-four years until his retirement in 1919, doing much good in the parish and rebuilding the parish church of St George between 1889 and 1903. He was rural dean (1909-21), first of West Dartford and afterwards of Beckenham. From 1906 to 1914 he was proctor in convocation, and in 1905 was chosen honorary Canon of Rochester. He married a daughter of Captain Powell of the Royal Welch Fusiliers and sister of Sir Richard Douglas Powell, Bt (1842-1925), sometime President of the Royal College of Physicians. She died in 1930 and was survived by four sons and four daughters. He died at his house in the precincts, Rochester, on 27 March 1931, aged 88, and was buried at Beckenham. Arnott was eminently fitted for the pastoral office and throughout his long ministry at Beckenham exercised a widespread influence for good. He was a man of handsome and distinguished presence and his sermons were remarkable for their clear and orderly expression. Publications:- The microscopic structure of tumours and cancer, in Holmes' *System of surgery*, 2nd ed 1870, 1, 611. The pathology of malignant new growths. *Med Times and Gaz*. 1871, 1, 566, etc. *Cancer, its varieties, histology and diagnosis*. London, 1872. *Emmanuel, meditations on the incarnate life of Our Lord*. 1913.