Frank Loeffler was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at St Mary's and Queen Charlotte's hospitals, London. He was born in India of Austrian parents, Ernst and Bianka. His father was a businessman who had moved to India in the 1920s. Loeffler lived in the elegant style of the Raj and went to Woodstock School in the Himalayan foothills. At the age of 15 he was sent to England to attend Mill Hill School. He went on to study at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from which he graduated with a first class degree. He completed his clinical training at the London Hospital, qualifying with the conjoint diploma in 1955 and gaining his MB BChir in 1956. Following the accepted path for a career in obstetrics and gynaecology at the time, he became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1958 before specialising in his chosen discipline. He held senior registrar posts at Queen Charlotte's and the Chelsea Hospital for Women, gaining his membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1963 (he was elected a fellow in 1974). Before taking up his first consultant appointment he went to Uppsala in Sweden for a year to study the new drug clomiphene. He was initially appointed as a consultant at the Central Middlesex Hospital and Willesden General Hospital. He was there for a short time before joining the staff of St Mary's and Queen Charlotte's. He served on the Committee on Safety of Medicines and was a council member of both the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. His special interest was improving the safety of childbirth, both in early pregnancy and in labour. He was a keen advocate of using the technique of examining foetal cells taken by chorionic villus sampling in early pregnancy and by amniocentesis in late pregnancy, and in labour detecting foetal anoxia by foetal blood sampling. He had a long list of publications to his name. He served as editor of the *British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology* for eight years with great distinction and also edited a number of other journals. He was a meticulous guardian of the English language, and potential contributors would find their submissions much improved after his scrutiny. He had a reputation for being an excellent and inspiring teacher with a great interest in clinical teaching and examining. He had a sharp wit and a short fuse, but no malice. All was forgiven with gratitude for his lively instruction. He was also proud to be involved in all student events both sporting and artistic, and was happy to take part in and be the subject of sketches at Christmas concerts! He was a keen oarsman and sailor and was very supportive of his students' sporting activities. He was a devoted family man, married to Eva née Guttman, whose father had established the Paralympic Games at Stoke Mandeville in the 1940s. When Eva was mayor of the Paralympic Village in 2012 Frank styled himself as the mayoress! On retirement, he and his family moved to Aldeburgh, where they had for many years enjoyed family holidays and weekends. He was very interested in opera and became a guide and lecturer at the Red House, which had belonged to Benjamin Britten and Sir Peter Pears, and he edited *The Alde and Ore Magazine*. Eva and Frank enjoyed a very full family life with three children. Their son, Mark, is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Frank had three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. He died playing golf on 18 July 2014. He had just putted a ball unusually well on the 10th green and, turning to receive the congratulations of his playing partner, he suddenly collapsed and sadly did not respond to resuscitation. He was 83.