Alan Mathams was a general practitioner in East Sussex. He did his medical training at the Westminster Hospital, where he qualified in 1977. After junior posts, he chose a career in surgery and was registrar at St James Hospital, Balham, and Epsom District Hospital. He decided to become a GP, joining a practice in Mayfield, East Sussex. He worked long hours and was devoted to his patients. He had a bluff and ebullient, though sympathetic, manner and was hospitable, always the life and soul of the party, frequently one he had given himself. He was a keen Territorial, served with the evacuation hospital in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf war and, shortly before his death, spent two weeks in Gibraltar, providing medical cover for an exercise. Alan enjoyed skiing and sailing, only failing to complete the Fastnet race in 1985 because of a broken boom. He reached the finals of the Sussex bridge pairs in 1986. He married Penny and they had two daughters, Harriet and Alice. He died on 17 November 1999.