Iven Alastair Page was born at South Grafton, New South Wales, in 1914, being the third son of Sir Earle Page. He was educated at the Fort Street Boys' High School and the Sydney Church of England Grammar School, and then proceeded to the University of Sydney where he graduated in medicine in 1937. After holding junior posts in the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital he enlisted in the RAMC in 1940, and served in Iceland, Europe, India, Burma and Thailand, gaining extensive experience in surgery and obtaining the FRCS England in 1943. After the war he returned for a short period to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, but in 1946 started in general practice in Grafton. He became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1958, and in 1964 he decided to give up general practice and to specialize as a consultant surgeon. His previous experience in general practice, and what he had learned during war service combined to make him an outstanding general surgeon, who gained the confidence of his patients by quietly listening to what they had to say, and by the wise avoidance of unnecessary surgery. He was also well qualified as an accident surgeon in the days before the specialty was well recognized. Page was a keen sportsman and a valued member of the local community, not only in his professional capacity as chairman of his hospital board and as an active member, and ultimately president of the local medical association, but also through his practical interest in the Grafton news media, and in broadcasting. His many and varied activities were brought to a premature end by an illness borne with quiet dignity, and he died at the age of 57 on 5 August 1971. His wife Elizabeth and their four sons survived him.