Colin Neil Davison, the only son of a company secretary, was born on 27 April 1948. He was educated at Woodhouse Grammar School, North Finchley, and Charing Cross Hospital. He had an excellent student record and secured the Huxley Prize in physiology; the second clinical prize and later the Gordon Holmes Prize in medicine; the William Travers Prize in midwifery and gynaecology and certificates of merit in ophthalmology and dermatology. Following house appointments in medicine and surgery at Charing Cross Hospital he was casualty officer at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital before returning to his own medical school as anatomy demonstrator. Having passed the Primary FRCS he became senior house officer in orthopaedics at the Rowley Bristow Hospital, Pyrford, and St Peter's, Chertsey, before proceeding to a further senior house officer appointment in general surgery at Barnet. After securing the Final FRCS diploma he was appointed surgical registrar at St Helier Hospital, Carshalton. On 19 July 1975, following an exceptionally heavy period of emergency work he was found dead with a severed femoral artery after 22 hours on duty. An open verdict was returned by the coroner at the ensuing inquest. He was survived by his wife, Louise Eileen, née Ashurst, whom he married on 3 March, 1973, and they had one son who was born two months after his father's tragic death.