Ronald Maxwell Rawle was born in Greenham, a small village near the border between Dorset and Somerset, in 1907. When he was six his parents emigrated to Australia, taking him and his two brothers. They settled first in Canberra and then moved to Blackheath. He attended Blackheath Public School, Sydney Boys' High School and the medical school of Sydney University where he was appointed prosector. In his second year of medical school he coxed the faculty eight to victory. After graduating in 1930 he began a long association with Sydney Hospital which was only interrupted twice. He returned to England for postgraduate study in London, culminating in his admission to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England after which he became surgical registrar at Salford Royal Infirmary for two years. During the second world war he served as Captain (temporary Major) in charge of the 118th Army General Hospital at Rabaul. At Sydney Hospital he specialised in general surgery taking a particular interest in the management of hypertension by sympathectomy until this was superseded by other methods of treatment. He also held posts as honorary surgeon to St Luke's Hospital and honorary consulting surgeon to the Royal Hospital for Women and the Crown Street Women's Hospital. He also worked at the Scottish Hospital and was on the Governing Board of St Luke's. In 1948 he was admitted FRACS. In 1964 illness forced his resignation from the active staff of Sydney Hospital and the Board appointed him honorary consulting surgeon. He continued to care for his private patients until compelled to retire finally in 1968. In his earlier years he had been a keen tennis player but was later forced to restrict his outdoor activities to gardening. A great lover of music and a talented pianist, he was to be seen regularly at symphony concerts and the ballet. He died on 24 April 1974 survived by his two brothers, one of whom being Dr K C T Rawle of Orange, New South Wales (qv).