John Coates was born in May 1911 and was educated at Keighley Grammar School and Leeds University. He had a distinguished academic career, graduating BSc with first-class honours in 1933 and qualifying three years later with honours. After various resident appointments at Leeds he became demonstrator of anatomy at St Thomas's Hospital and later was appointed resident surgical officer at the London Chest Hospital, from where he studied for and took the Fellowship. In 1939 he became resident medical officer at the Bradford Royal Infirmary, but on the outbreak of war he joined the RAMC and served in East Africa and Burma commanding a field surgical unit. After the end of the war he returned to Bradford for a short time before being appointed surgeon in Hull, where his duties were initially at the Western General Hospital and later at the reconstituted Hull Royal Infirmary and also at the Kingston General Hospital. John Coates's contribution to surgery in Hull was notable and distinguished; in his earlier years he devoted time and energy to building an efficient surgical service, but in later years his energies were chiefly concerned in training junior hospital doctors and guiding them in their careers. When postgraduate education became more established Coates took a leading part in the introduction of the present postgraduate centre in Hull. Over the years Coates played a prominent part in the medical life of Hull; he was secretary and later President of the Hull Medical Society and was President of the East Yorkshire Branch of the BMA in 1964-65. At the time of his death he was Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee for Hull and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Coates's work was his life and he had little time for recreation. He died while still in active practice on 1 March 1970 at the age of 58, and was survived by his wife and two daughters.