John James Barclay Hobbs was educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1949, graduating with the London MB, BS, the same year. After holding the post of orthopaedic and casualty house surgeon at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital he did his national service as a Flying Officer in the RAF medical branch. In 1955 Hobbs was a surgical registrar at the Hertford County Hospital and obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He had also held the post of resident assistant pathologist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading. He then gained further experience as a surgical registrar at the Central Middlesex Hospital before emigrating to Australia where he worked in Perth for some years, but by 1965 he was back in Britain serving as a Squadron-Leader in the RAF medical branch. In 1967 he was awarded the MBE. He died suddenly on 20 July 1972 at the RAF Hospital, Broughton.