Born on 11 September 1913, the second son of Henry James and Margaret Ann, Norman Henry Ashton was educated at the West Kensington Central School, King's College and Westminster Hospital. There he won the prize for bacteriology and was editor of the *Gazette*. After junior appointments, he specialised in pathology, was in charge of pathology in the Kent and Canterbury Hospital during the Blitz, and organised the blood transfusion service for Kent. He joined the RAMC to set up the blood transfusion service in the Middle East as a Lieutenant Colonel. After the second world war, he returned to be pathologist to the Gordon Hospital, and shortly afterwards to Moorfields. He made major contributions to the understanding of retinitis pigmentosa and diabetic retinopathy, for which he was recognised by the Royal Society and innumerable learned bodies all over the world. In his leisure time, he was master of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and an honorary steward of Westminster Abbey, a devoted gardener and a talented painter. He died on 4 January 2000.