Wallace Black was born at 14 Park View Road, Finchley on 12 September 1917; his father, James Black was a company director and his mother was Jane Duckworth, whose father was an electrical engineer. Black was educated at Finchley County School and at King's College London, and Westminster Hospital Medical School; there he won the Chadwick Prize in clinical surgery and, after qualification in 1941, was appointed house surgeon to Sir E Rock Carling and Sir Clement Price Thomas. During the second world war he served three years at sea in the Royal Navy in ships which covered the invasion of Southern Europe and of North France, and then became duty officer to the Royal Naval Hospital, Plymouth. While at Plymouth he gained experience in general surgery but became chiefly interested in ear, nose and throat work. Black was demobilised in 1946 and took his Fellowship the following year. He worked at the Hammersmith Hospital under Ivor Griffith in the ENT department till in 1951 he was appointed consultant ENT surgeon to Harrow Hospital and visiting surgeon to Northwick Park and Wembley Hospitals. In 1952 he was appointed to the staff of the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, an appointment which he held till his death. Black married, during the war, Jane only daughter of P C Nicholson and they had two sons. For many years he was an invalid and had his first heart attack at the age of 38. He died in St Richard's Hospital, Chichester on 17 May 1972 from a coronary occlusion.