Michael O'Riordan was a consultant ophthalmologist at the Croydon Eye Unit, Mayday Hospital. He was born in Markham, Gwent, on 14 August 1929, the son of Michel Joseph O'Riordan, a general practitioner, and Milwen Mary Lima O'Riordan née Jones, a teacher. He came from a medical background - his father, uncle, aunt and seven first cousins were all doctors. His brother, Jeremy L H O'Riordan, became a physician at Middlesex Hospital. He was educated at Newport High School for Boys and then studied medicine at King's College, London, and Westminster Hospital Medical School, where he gained an entrance scholarship. He qualified in 1952. He was a house physician at the Westminster Hospital and then (from 1953 to 1955) carried out his National Service as a medical officer with the First Royal Tank Regiment in the Suez Canal region. From September 1955 to March 1956 he was a casualty officer at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, and then became an emergency officer at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. From 1956 to 1958 he was a senior house officer and subsequently a registrar at the Oxford Eye Hospital. From 1959 to 1965 he was a registrar in ophthalmology at Westminster Hospital and then a senior registrar in ophthalmology at the Royal Free Hospital and National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. Between 1965 and 1980 he was a chief clinical assistant at Moorfields Hospital and (from 1975 to 1980) deputy director of the Wolfson Medical Research Council unit at Atkinson Morley Hospital. He was also a visiting consultant ophthalmologist at Carbonear General and Notre Dame Memorial hospitals in Newfoundland, Canada. From 1980 to 1994 he was a consultant ophthalmologist at the Croydon Eye Unit, Mayday Hospital. He was a member of the ophthalmic group committee of the British Medical Association and president, secretary and treasurer of the Medical Contact Lens Association. He was a member of the council of the National Ophthalmic Treatment Board and of the Southern Ophthalmological Society. He wrote on eye problems in neurological rehabilitation units and in general practice, and on the fitting of corneal contact lenses. Outside medicine he enjoyed travel, walking, bridge and 'good food and drink'. In February 1962 he married Ann Colter, a theatre sister at Westminster Hospital. They had three children - Jane, Hugh and Aileen. Michael David O'Riordan died on 14 March 2013. He was 83.