John Foster, the eldest son of John Robert Foster, an ophthalmic surgeon, and of Emily Jane (née Elliot) was born on 31 October 1903 in West Hartlepool. He was educated at Aysgarth School, Uppingham School and Caius College, Cambridge, before entering the London Hospital Medical School where he won prizes for clinical medicine, clinical surgery, minor surgery and the Treves Prize. After qualifying in 1928 he held three house appointments at the London Hospital and was then house surgeon at the Royal Westminster Eye Hospital where he secured the Guthrie Research Prize and passed the final FRCS in 1930. He was appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon to the Leeds General Infirmary in 1933 and later recorded his professional indebtedness to Russell Howard and Charles Goulden in England, and to Hermegildo Arruga and Louis Pufique abroad. He served the Leeds General Infirmary for 35 years and was also senior lecturer in ophthalmology at the University of Leeds. He was a Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1956 and President of the Ophthalmic Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1961. At various times he gave the May, Middlemore and Montgomery Lectures; he also gave the Doyne Lecture at Oxford in 1951, later published as *Aims and obstacles in the ophthalmic clinic*. He edited the second edition of Philps's *Ophthalmic operations*, 1961. John Foster was a man of notable integrity who, during his hospital service, took a great interest in every junior doctor who worked with him. He was a gifted after dinner speaker, a keen golfer, and a lifelong bachelor who continued in private practice until his death on 7 April, 1984.