Oliver Cowpe qualified at the University of Manchester and, after junior posts, joined the RAMC, where he served in Europe and the Sudan. After the war, he specialised in orthopaedics, worked in Salford and was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Altrincham and later at Wythenshawe District General Hospital. There he built up the orthopaedic services and developed a keen interest in training. His main outside interests were golf, gardening and climbing, and he was among the first to see the need for expert medical care in the mountain rescue service. He left a widow, Dorothy, a son who is a professor of oral surgery, and a daughter. He died on 21 March 1997.