Bob Lamming was born in Hull on 6 December 1910, the son of Robert Sydney Lamming, a timber merchant's clerk, and Clara Gertrude Redfearn, a solicitor's daughter. He was educated at Bridlington School, Yorkshire, and Leeds University, where he won pre-clinical and clinical scholarships, and the William Hey gold medal for medicine in 1936. He passed his BSc in physiology in 1931 with first class honours, and then went on to complete an MSc in the same subject in 1933. When he qualified in 1936 it was also with first class honours. After a series of junior jobs in Leeds General Infirmary, including a post as casualty officer there, he was a demonstrator in anatomy and passed the FRCS. As a Territorial, he was called up in 1939, and served throughout the war as a surgical specialist with the rank of Major, spending most of his time in Scotland. He was then posted in charge of the military hospital on the Isle of Man, where there were many enemy prisoners of war. After the war, he became a consultant surgeon to the Noble Hospital, Isle of Man. There he built up a health service parallel to that on the mainland. His commitment to medical politics was rewarded by the fellowship of the BMA in 1961. In 1975, he was appointed to the unique post of surgeon to the Lieutenant Governor's household. He was appointed an OBE for services to the Manx community in 1984. In 1939 he married his fellow medical student Olive Callow, who came from an ancient Manx family. They had three daughters, one of whom became a consultant anaesthetist. His wife and one of his daughters predeceased him. There are six grandchildren (one a doctor). He died on 22 February 1997, survived by his daughters, Alison and Bobbie.