Alfred Standeven was born in 1916 and graduated in 1939 after studying at Queen's College, Cambridge, and St Mary's Hospital. Shortly afterwards he joined the Royal Air Force, serving from 1941 to 1946. He passed the FRCS Edinburgh in 1944 before being posted to serve as a surgical specialist in Burma and later in Japan. He was twice mentioned in despatches. After demobilisation he served as senior registrar, first at Southend and later at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. He passed the MCh degree in 1954 and the FRCS two years later. He then joined the surgical unit at St Mary's as first assistant and acquired considerable experience of vascular surgery. In 1958 he was appointed consultant surgeon to the Royal Victoria Hospitals in Folkestone and in Dover and brought to them a vast experience of trauma surgery and vascular surgery. He retired in 1981 but the enjoyment of his last few years was marred by the need for repeated blood transfusions for multiple myeloma. He died on 6 May 1983, aged 67, and is survived by his wife Patricia (Paddy) and two daughters, one of whom is a doctor.