Arthur Chance was born in Dublin on 15 November 1889, the third son of Sir Arthur Chance, past President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1904 and 1905 and surgeon to the Marta Hospitals, and Martha, née Ronnaey. He was educated in Kildare and the Trinity College, Dublin. As a student he won many prizes including a travelling scholarship and the Bennet Medal. He qualified in 1912 with first place in surgery and second place in medicine and obstetrics and gynaecology. He passed both the English and Irish Fellowships in 1915. He held appointments at Dr Steeven's Hospital, the Orthopaedic Hospital and Jervis Street Hospitals. During the first world war he served in the RAMC from 1915 to 1918 as a Captain in casualty clearing stations. In 1916 he became surgeon to Dr Steeven's Hospital where he served for fifty years. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors from 1964 to 1966 and was the first Chairman of the Central Council of the Federated Dublin Hospitals. He was elected surgeon to the Jervis Street Hospital in 1930 retiring from the staff in 1961. Chance took an active interest in teaching and was Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Trinity College and Professor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Although trained as a general surgeon, Chance was most conscious of the necessity of specialization if high standards were to be maintained and orthopaedics became his life-long interest. In 1954 and 1955 he was Vice-President of the British Orthopaedic Association and was always in the forefront of his speciality being amongst the first to pin fractures of the neck of the femur. Chance was one of a long medical family, apart from his eminent father, his sister, Dr Alice Carleton, was a noted anatomy teacher in Oxford and became President of the British Association of Dermatologists. His brother George was a radiologist at Derby Royal Infirmary while another brother, Oliver, 'Bill', was a pioneer in radiotherapy and the founder and first director at St Luke's Hospital, Dublin. In earlier life Chance was a keen golfer with a single figure handicap but his later passion was horse racing and amongst the honours which he appreciated most was that of honorary surgeon to three race courses, the Curragh, Leopardstown and Baldogle. He also described himself as a 'poet'. His skill as an expert witness in the courts was legendary and after retirement from surgery he developed a new career in medico-legal work which continued until his stroke and complete hemiplegia at the age of 83. His private life was shared by his close-knit family, Harriet McBurney from County Down became his secretary in 1926 and they were married in 1941. She continued as his secretary and after his stroke in 1972 was his devoted nurse. He died in his ninety-first year on June 24 1980 survived by his wife and daughter Gillian.