'Dan' Desmond was born in London on 18 August 1912, the second son of Dennis William Andrew Desmond, a pharmacist, and Violet Amy née More. He was educated at St Aloysius College, Highgate, and the London Hospital, where he qualified in 1934, and was house surgeon, receiving room officer, and clinical assistant in the department of pathology. He counted among his heroes Russell Howard, Alan Perry, Sir James Walton and Robert Milne. After serving as RSO at Poplar Hospital, he was surgeon to the Haymeads EMS Hospital at Bishops Stortford. In 1941 he joined the Navy, where he was commissioned as Surgeon Lieutenant Commander, and appointed head of surgical services at a military hospital in Bermuda. While travelling to Bermuda, his ship was diverted to track the German battleship Bismarck and was directly involved in its sinking. Soon after demobilisation, he was posted to St James Hospital, Balham, as a rehabilitation registrar. His talents were soon recognised and he was appointed as a consultant in 1948. He and Norman Tanner made a formidable team, becoming famous for their work on peptic ulcer and haematemesis, and for surgery of the biliary tree, and much sought after for their surgical training. Dan was a member (and Chairman) of the Court of Examiners from 1966 to 1972, President of the surgical section of the Royal Society of Medicine, and a member of council of the Association of Surgeons. He examined in surgery in Oxford and London. He married Diana (née) Tinkler in 1940 and they had one daughter and two sons, one of whom, A D Desmond, followed him into the London Hospital and became a consultant urologist in Liverpool. He retired to Salcombe and died on 19 November 1997.