John Garraway was educated at Eastbourne College and the Middlesex Hospital. On graduating he joined the RAF, in which he served in North Africa and in the RAF hospital in Vereeniging, South Africa, where he married Margaret Lapping in June 1944. After the war he returned to England to serve in various RAF bases, from which he was seconded in 1952 to accompany the Royal Family as their family physician. He was seconded from the RAF to do surgical training at the Hammersmith Hospital and passed the FRCS in 1957, continuing to serve in the RAF until he retired as Group Captain. On retirement Garraway returned to South Africa as surgeon superintendent at the Eben Donges Hospital in Worcester, and later settled in Durban, where he ran the casualty department at King Edward VIII Hospital. He was given the nickname of *Khanyisani* from his Zulu staff, meaning 'light': this was because, on busy weekends, when casualty was crowded, he rolled up his sleeves and dealt quickly with everyone, which made him the 'light at the end of the tunnel'. He died on 31 December 1992, survived by his wife, three children and three grandchildren.