Peter Corfield was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, on 17 June 1922. Both parents were consultant analytical chemists, his father, Charles Edwin, being the editor of Martindale and the British Pharmacopoeia. He also lectured and examined at the University of London, as did his wife Ella, née Caird. Peter Corfield's early education was at St Paul's School, London, and King's College, whence he won an entrance scholarship to Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, where he won the Pereira Prize. After qualifying in 1946 house appointments followed, and a lectureship in anatomy at King's College London. Subsequently he was appointed senior registrar in general surgery at Charing Cross Hospital, and at this time came under the influence of Eric Crook, Jennings Marshall and Norman Tanner. He gained his FRCS in 1950 and his MS in 1952. He became consultant surgeon to Mount Vernon, Harefield, Wembley and Northwood and Pinner Hospitals, and was also consultant surgeon to the Royal Masonic Schools. He was a keen fly fisherman, and in his early life had played rugby and cricket for his university. He retired due to ill health in 1983 and died in November 1996, having been predeceased by his wife Myrra, whom he had married in 1948. Two sons, Robin and Andrew (a doctor) and a daughter, Elizabeth, survived him.