John Archibald McLauchlan received his medical education at the University of Edinburgh and graduated MB ChB in 1938 and MD in 1939. He obtained the Edinburgh FRCS in 1931 and the English FRCS in 1934. He had been house surgeon at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh and resident surgical officer at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital and was later appointed orthopaedic surgeon to Queen Mary's Hospital Stratford, Poplar Hospital and Harold Wood Hospital. He was an examiner in surgery to the General Nursing Council and a Fellow of the Association of Surgeons and member of the British Orthopaedic Association. He died on April 2 1976.