Ernest Arthur Freeman was born on 20 September 1900 at Streatham, London, and educated at Westminster City School. He was called up in the last few weeks of the first world war and served as a private in the Royal West Surreys. With his ex-serviceman's grant he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1919 as a London University student, qualifying in 1925, taking the MB BS and the FRCS two years later. After house appointments and a spell as a junior demonstrator in pathology he joined Gask's professorial unit as third assistant in a team comprising Thomas Dunhill, Geoffrey Keynes, and James Paterson Ross. A bright future undoubtedly awaited him in London, but it was not the least of his gestures of independence that he would not join any London hospital promotion race waiting list. What London lost the Midlands gained and he became one of Wolverhampton's outstanding personalities and a well-known and influential figure in Wolverhampton medical circles and in the orthopaedic surgical affairs of the West Midlands. Coming to Wolverhampton in 1931, he was appointed to the Royal Hospital and became senior surgeon in fractures and orthopaedics. He was also on the staff of the Guest Hospital, Dudley, Bridgnorth Infirmary, Brosley and Wenlock Hospitals and Patshull Rehabilitation Clinic. At his manipulation sessions under general anaesthesia it was a masterly exposition of the art to see him put even the most massive man through his full range of spinal movement with effortless ease. In 1940, in the treatment of war casualties, he became associated with Patshull, which through his endeavours became a very active rehabilitation centre. When, later, convoys of wounded began to arrive he formed an orthopaedic unit at Wordsley Hospital which became the catalyst for development of all the other surgical activities of the hospital. The massive amount of work he was able to carry out depended on the elimination of 'dead time'. Secretary and physiotherapist accompanied him at his clinics and he had the full co-operation of anaesthetists and theatre staffs at his lists. He was for long associated with the 'Wolves' and was greatly respected by the players he treated for their injuries. Clear and decisive in thought and speech, he was an excellent and formidable witness in court. Up to a short time before his death he was actively engaged in medico-legal work, making his retirement happy and purposeful. Outside his profession, he greatly enjoyed winter skiing holidays, walking and, in his later years, golf. He was a capable musician, and a lover of fine things. He was married and had one son and daughter. He died on 14 September 1975.