Albert William Holgate was born at Halifax on 8 November 1896. His mother's father was Dr Keighley of Batley, Yorks. He was educated at Alleyn's School, Dulwich. He obtained the MRCS LRCP in 1918 and graduated MB BS the following year. He held house appointments at University College Hospital and the Royal Berkshire Hospital, and came under the influence of Wilfred Trotter and Leonard Joyce of Reading. He took the FRCS in 1928 and MS in 1929. From 1930 until 1961, when he retired, he was consultant surgeon to Chester Royal Infirmary and to various cottage hospitals in Cheshire and North Wales. As well as serving as consultant surgeon he was also for many years venereologist at the Infirmary and up to within a week of his death was undertaking occasional locum sessions in the speciality. Bill Holgate was a surgeon with profound knowledge and acute diagnostic ability. His surgical technique was impeccable and he was much loved by those who worked with him and by the many patients who owed so much to his skill and care. A quiet, gentle man who never sought fame and publicity, he was one of those who steered the Health Service through its early days by service on committees of all kinds. His recreation was music, and he applied the same assiduity in its study and expression through his playing of the cello as he had given to the practice of his profession. During his retirement he took part in public performances by ensembles and orchestras throughout Cheshire and the Merseyside areas. His first wife died in 1931. In 1935 he again found happiness in marriage to Monica Gamon, SRN, a member of the staff of Chester Royal Infirmary. They had two daughters. He died on 19 April 1976, aged 79.