Cecil Wood Flemming, the son of Percy Flemming, ophthalmic surgeon at University College Hospital and Dr Elizabeth Flemming, physician to the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, was born on 20 August 1902 at Ewhurst, Surrey. He was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Oxford, moving to University College Hospital in 1924. He qualified both MRCS LRCP and BM BCh Oxford in 1926. After holding a surgical appointment at University College Hospital he took the FRCS in 1928 and obtained his MCh Oxford in 1929. In the same year he was appointed surgical registrar at University College Hospital, then the only such post, and in 1933 he was appointed assistant surgeon as junior to Gwynne Williams under whom he began to specialise in orthopaedic surgery. He visited the Bohler Clinic in Vienna for a while. On his return he was also appointed to the staff of the Metropolitan and Harrow Hospital, and in 1940 he was made full surgeon at University College Hospital. He made a considerable impact on major lung surgery, then in its infancy. He also gave much time to the management of surgical tuberculosis in children, but perhaps his most memorable contribution to the hospital and medical school was as a clinical teacher. Having joined the RAFVR in 1936 he was posted to a mobile unit in France in 1939. In 1940 he went to Cairo as Commanding Officer of the RAF hospital and after service in North Africa and Italy he was appointed consultant surgeon to the RAF in the Middle East with the rank of Air Commodore, being largely responsible for establishing the rehabilitation services for the RAF in that area. He was awarded an OBE in 1944. He returned to the University College Hospital in 1946 and, with the advent of the National Health Service, he began to assume an important role in the management of the hospital. He planned the reorganisation of St Pancras Hospital as part of UCH, and the initiation of a large geriatric unit by Lord Amulree stimulated his interest in the orthopaedic problems of the aged. In 1950 he became chairman of the medical committee and a member of the board of governors. He resigned from his other hospitals and devoted all his time to UCH, playing an important part in the planning of a new outpatient and accident department which was finally opened in 1969. As a tribute it was named Cecil Flemming House. He gradually introduced surgical specialisation into his hospital, first setting up an accident and orthopaedic service which, under his direction became one of the most successful training centres for aspiring orthopaedic surgeons. In 1960 he was appointed dean of the medical school and as such he guided the affairs of the school at a difficult time. He continued his busy orthopaedic practice in addition to his teaching and administrative duties until his unexpected illness in the early 1960s. His brilliant teaching career came to a premature end much to the sadness of his colleagues and his students. He was a member of the Court of Examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1952 to 1958. Despite progressive ill-health, he managed to enjoy his retirement with characteristic cheerfulness and determination. He studied his disabilities with interest and objectivity and would, from time to time, report ways in which he had found it possible to avoid their worst consequences. He established a fund to assist students with bursaries for their elective periods. A number of UCH students would escort him for walks in Regent's Park near his last home. With tea and toast and a mini-tutorial afterwards, his otherwise chairborne life was happily relieved. In 1931 he married Elizabeth Haden, herself a UCH doctor, and they had two sons and a daughter. He died on 18 September 1981, aged 79.