Ernest Finch was born on 2 September 1884 son of Frederick James Finch, and was educated at Commercial Travellers Schools, Hatch End, Middlesex, gaining an entrance scholarship to Sheffield University which at that time was without a charter and unable to grant medical degrees. He qualified as MB BS London in 1906, obtaining honours in pathology. For twelve months before qualification he worked as a demonstrator of physiology and published a paper in *Proceedings 35*, xxxviii of the Physiological Society. During the years 1907-12 he served as casualty officer, house surgeon and surgical registrar in the Sheffield Royal Infirmary, and in 1912 was elected honorary assistant surgeon. He also held appointments as demonstrator of applied anatomy and surgical pathology in the University. At the outbreak of the war in 1914 he held the rank of Major in the 3rd West Riding Field Ambulance TA and served in France, later in the 3rd Northern General Hospital. After the war he returned to Sheffield and became the doyen of surgery in that city. He occupied the Chair of surgery part time from 1933 to 1944, and on his retirement from the hospital in 1944 a whole-time professor was appointed, while Finch was made honorary lecturer on the history of medicine, a subject in which he had always shown a keen interest. In the College Finch was a member of the Court of Examiners 1945-49 and a member of Council 1941-57, serving as Vice-President and Chairman of the Library Committee. He delivered the Bradshaw Lecture in 1951, the Vicary Lecture in 1953 on "Leonard da Vinci, the forerunner", and in 1957 was Hunterian Orator. He took a great interest in the affairs of the College, particularly the Library, and in 1960 compiled a history of the College Council Club. He was a man of wide contacts, served as secretary of the Moynihan Club for over twenty years (1926-47), and in due course became its President. He served as President of the Association of Surgeons 1939-42, of the Surgical Section of the Royal Society of Medicine 1945-47, and of the Sheffield Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1931. In the British Medical Association he was chairman of the Sheffield Division in 1933-34. He was a member of the Sheffield Regional Hospital Board, and for many years a member of the Standing Advisory Committee on Cancer and Radiotherapy. For the General Medical Council he acted as Inspector of Final Examinations, and later as Visitor to medical schools. He was an examiner in surgery for the National University of Ireland, and was the guest of honour at the annual meeting of the Irish Medical Association in 1952. In recognition of his achievements and in affectionate gratitude his former registrars and housemen raised over four hundred pounds to establish the Ernest Library at the Sheffield Royal Infirmary in 1949. He married in 1912 Mary Ainsworth and there was one son of the marriage. He died on 16 December 1960 aged 76 at his home Green Farm, Curbar, near Sheffield, survived by his wife and son.