Robert Cecil Ronald Loane was born in Belfast on 8 June 1919, went to school at the Methodist College, and then proceeded to Queen's University where he graduated in medicine in 1942. He joined the RAF, and on demobilization became a surgical registrar at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, which prepared him for the Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Edinburgh and England, which he passed in 1949. In 1951 he was appointed consultant surgeon to South Tyrone Hospital, in Dungannon, which had previously been a Poor Law Infirmary, and it was due to Loane's administrative ability, with the support of an enthusiastic management committee, that it was transformed into a well equipped institution, suitable for the practice of modern surgery. Thanks to his own exceptional ability the hospital was soon recognized by the local doctors as completely adequate for the treatment of their surgical cases which previously had had to be referred to distant hospitals. He was soon joined by consultant colleagues in other specialties, but undertook all the surgery until he was joined by another surgeon in 1963. In addition to his clinical duties he served on the Education and Research Committee of the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority, and his cheerful disposition was much appreciated by all who had to work with him. Although he enjoyed riding and was a keen member of the Dungannon Hunt Club, his chief enjoyment was to spend his leisure time at home with his wife Vera and their two sons and small daughter. His life was tragically shortened, for he died suddenly on 28 September 1968 when aged only 49.