Born on 1 April 1915 in Doublebois, Liskeard, Cornwall, to a family that had served India for five generations, Peter Anthony Lane Roberts was educated at Cheltenham and then went with a classical scholarship to Wadham. At Oxford he read medicine, rowed and played rugby football, gaining a trial cap. He went to Guy's Hospital for his clinical studies and graduated with the Conjoint Diploma in 1940, proceeding BM BCh the following year. True to his family tradition he served with the Indian Army Medical Corps throughout the war in India and Malaya, reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in command of an Indian field ambulance. He returned to Guy's to continue his training in surgery and was appointed consultant surgeon to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children. He was always interested in the law, and served as a JP for many years until a succession of heart attacks necessitated an early retirement. He died on 15 June 1982, aged 67, survived by his wife Irina and one son and two daughters, the younger of whom is a nurse.