Norman Lewis White, the son of a chemist, was born on 8 September 1898, at Waterford, Ireland. He was educated at Leighton Park School and St John's College, Cambridge, before entering University College Hospital Medical School in 1921 with a Goldsmid Scholarship. On qualifying he was house physician to Sir Thomas Lewis and Dr Arthur Gray, and house surgeon to Gwynne Williams. On developing an early interest in obstetrics and gynaecology he became obstetric registrar and assistant in Professor R J Browne's obstetric unit at UCH. He completed the FRCS in 1929, took the MRCOG in 1932, the MD in the following year and was elected FRCOG in 1943 after his appointment as honorary consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at University College Hospital and at the Royal Northern Hospital. He also took charge of women's venereology at his hospitals. A quiet and gentle man, nicknamed 'Uncle', and always so called by his juniors, he himself believed that name to be attributable to premature greying in his early twenties. In spite of his quiet manner, he was a man of considerable parts and was highly conscientious both in the care of his patients and the teaching of his students. He was an enthusiastic collector of edible fungi and became a great authority on the subject. His last years were clouded by failing sight but he is remembered with affection by the many house officers and registrars who worked with him. He died at his home on the Isle of Wight on 4 October 1978.