Anthony Gordon Palin was born in Wallington, Surrey, on 29 July 1907, the son of Frederick Palin, a barrister. He was educated at St Lawrence College, Ramsgate, Oxford University and St Thomas's Hospital, qualifying in 1933. After completing post-graduate training he was appointed consultant ophthalmologist at Bristol Eye Hospital in 1937. He performed the first corneal graft in Bristol in the same year and shortly after the outbreak of war joined the medical service of the Royal Air Force as an ophthalmological specialist with the rank of Squadron Leader, serving in the Middle East and Germany. During this time his wife, Gabrielle Everard, served with Naval Intelligence. Returning to Bristol he played a leading part in making Bristol Eye Hospital one of the leading ophthalmology centres in the country and served on the Council of the Section of Ophthalmology of the Royal Society of Medicine and also on the Council of the Faculty of Ophthalmologists. He also played a leading part in the South West Ophthalmological Society serving as President from 1959 to 1961. Throughout his professional life he maintained close links with the University of Bristol and enthusiastically undertook undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. He was elected FRCS ad eundem in 1970 and retired from his hospital practice in 1972. Apart from his professional life he was a liveryman of the Society of Apothecaries, a keen salmon fisherman and an outstanding marksman, competing regularly at Bisley. He died on 26 January 1986 and is survived by his wife and two sons, Jeremy and Michael.