Alan Brock McCarten was a surgeon in Edmonton, Manitoba. Born in Winnipeg on 11 January 1919, he was the second son of Daniel Alexander McCarten, a dental surgeon, and his wife, Ella Isobel née Goldthorpe, the daughter of a lumber mill operator. After attending Kelvin High School in Winnipeg he won an Isbister scholarship to study medicine at the University of Manitoba Medical School. He was awarded the Chown gold medal in surgery in 1942 and qualified MD. After house jobs at Winnipeg General Hospital he travelled to the UK and undertook residency training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in Rochester, Kent and at the Royal Cancer Hospital in London. He joined the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve in 1942 and served until 1945. From 1943 onwards he was seconded to the Royal Navy and retired with the rank of surgeon lieutenant commander. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1946 and returned to practice in Canada. Before he left the UK he married Patience Mary Haddon on 11 August 1945 in Rochester Cathedral Church. Her great-grandfather had been a medical officer in the East India Company and was the medical officer on the Battleship Nile during the East India Mutiny. Her grandfather, whose surname was Fry, was a physician practicing in London. They had seven sons; Brock, Blake, Daniel, Murray, Colin, Kevin and James and three daughters, Rosemary, Martha and Joan. One son, Alan, predeceased him. Farming, golf and fishing were his favourite pursuits. He died on 7 June 2002, aged 83.