The only child of Percival and Lilian Coulter, he was born on 18 October, 1907. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury and King Edward VI, Bath, entering medical school at Bristol University in 1925, from whence he qualified MRCS, LRCP in 1931. He entered the Royal Navy as a Surgeon Lieutenant on 7 August of that year. Coulter's naval career was varied and successful. He was awarded the Parkes Memorial Prize while still a Surgeon Lieutenant for original work on the problems of health in tropical climates. He chose urology as his professional specialty but did not pursue this after the conclusion of the second world war, through which he served in convoys to Russia, being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1943. Coulter devoted his attention to literature and for the next seven years was employed on the production of the Naval medical history of the second world war, for which he was awarded the Gilbert Blane Medal in 1954. In collaboration with Christopher Lloyd he was responsible for the last two volumes of Medicine and the Navy, following the death of Surgeon Commander John Keevil, the author of the first two volumes. In October 1949 he was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn, and in April 1960 elected to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Promoted to Surgeon Captain in 1955, he served in that rank until 1961, when he retired at his own request, his last appointment being that of Medical Officer-in-Charge of the Royal Naval Hospital Medical School. On leaving the Navy he joined the staff of a pharmaceutical firm, and was appointed to the board of directors. Coulter was a splendid after-dinner speaker and gifted raconteur. He was also an accomplished cricketer, having been chosen to represent the Navy on several occasions. He was twice married, first to Margaret Helen May in 1933, by whom he had two sons and one daughter. His second marriage was to Frances Emily O'Driscoll in 1948. He died on 11 January 1968, aged 60 years. Publications: *Official Naval Medical History of the War*, 1954. *Medicine and the Navy*, 1960-1963.