Ronald Peatfield was a former consultant surgeon at Bedford General Hospital. Born on 28 December 1912 at Wilmslow, Cheshire, his father Thomas Crompton Peatfield was a railway executive. His mother was Mabel Brayshay Hughes. He was educated at Stowe and Queen's College, Cambridge, before going to the London Hospital for his clinical studies, where he was much influenced by Russell Howard. After resident appointments at the London, he joined the RAMC and served in the Middle East and Europe. After the war he became senior registrar at Edgware General Hospital until he was appointed consultant surgeon at the Bedford General Hospital in 1953. He was active in the Bedford Medical Society and was its President in 1972. He was responsible for the inauguration of day surgery in Bedford and, with the help of Margaret Snelling and the Sue Ryder Foundation, he established St John's Home, Moggerhanger, for the care of patients with terminal cancer. He was a keen carpenter, gardener and numismatist. In 1948, he married Ruth Hall, whose father was a surgeon in Eastbourne; they had two sons, Anthony, and Richard who became a consultant neurologist. There are five grandchildren. He died after a prolonged illness on 16 February 1999.