Frederic Bentley was born in 1905, the son of Frederic Bentley, JP, and Laura Evelyn. He was educated at Bolton and at Manchester University, enjoying his postgraduate training in the city and becoming chief assistant and tutor. He was also resident surgical officer at St Mark's Hospital, London, and at an unusually early age, Hunterian Professor at the College for two consecutive years, 1936-1937. During the second world war he served in the RAMC as Lt Col O/C Surgical Division and in addition on three special assignments; as O/C Penicillin Control Team in the Mediterranean, on missions to the Russian army in Rumania, and to the partisans in Yugoslavia. After the war he followed Professor Grey Turner as Professor of Surgery at the University of Durham (1945-1952). In 1953 he moved to the USA, becoming the Sommer Memorial Fellow in Portland Oregon and Chairman of the Oregon State Commission, 1975 saw him moving to Jordan as Professor of Surgery at the University of Jordan. Frederick Bentley contributed significantly to surgical physiology and was a member of both the Medical Research Society and the Physiological Society. In 1946 he married Radmila Novakovic of Belgrade, having been married previously to the sister of Duncan Cranna, FRCS. He died on 4 November 1980, aged 75 years.