David Rees was a consultant urologist and head of surgery at Benenden Hospital, Kent. He was born in 1942, the son of the well-known psychiatrist Linford Rees. He was passionate about rugby and played for his school, for London Welsh Schools, and for Bart's, where he qualified in medicine in 1968. He trained in surgery at St Bartholomew's and St Peter's Hospitals, developing an interest in urology. He was particularly influenced by John Wickham, with whom he did research on recurrent urinary infections in women and also on the psychological profiles of women with urinary frequency and dysuria. His consultant appointment in 1981 was as urologist to Royal East Sussex Hospital at Hastings. He moved from there to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, but returned to become consultant urologist at Benenden Hospital in Kent. He was the author of many papers, and was active in the British Association of Urologists, becoming a council member. He was an adviser to health secretaries and chief medical officers. Outside medicine, apart from rugby, he was interested in music, sailing and botany - discovering a rare orchid on a walk in Sussex. His career and his life were cut short by illness, but he worked until a few days before his death on 26 April 2000. He leaves his wife Anne, her daughter, and his three children; Owen, Catherine and Alice, from his first marriage to Mary, a general practitioner.