John Cappin was a consultant ophthalmologist at Leicester Royal Infirmary from 1975 to 1999. He was born in London in 1938 to Louis and Yetta Cappin; his father was a clothing manufacturer in the East End of London and Cumbernauld, Scotland. John was the eldest of three brothers. He attended Mercers' School in London, where he was awarded an exhibition to Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1958 to study medicine and, during his third year, added anthropology and archaeology. In 1961 he moved to the London Hospital to complete his medical training, working in two house jobs in the medical and surgical units. In 1965 he was appointed as a demonstrator in pathology at Sheffield University and, while carrying out research there, decided to become an ophthalmologist. He started his ophthalmology training at University College Hospital, London, and from there moved to Moorfields Eye Hospital. At Moorfields he became interested in glaucoma and paediatric neurology. He produced papers for *Eye (London)*, *Archives of Ophthalmology*, *Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine*, the *British Journal of Ophthalmology* and *Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom*. He was also on the editorial board of *Ophthalmic Literature*. In 1975, after being offered jobs in Australia, he decided to stay in England and moved to Leicester to take up a post as a consultant ophthalmologist. Over the years, he particularly enjoyed squint surgery on young children. He operated on children from an orphanage in Romania, helping to fund raise to bring these young people to Leicester and making several journeys to that country. John was a very talented pianist who carried on learning the piano into his late sixties under the watchful eye of a concert pianist who regarded him as of a professional standard. He gave many concerts for charity, as well as running a choir for a few years and encouraged his son to play his clarinet with him at concerts. John was a mason and wrote papers about the history and rituals of the organisation. He started a study group, which is carrying on in his memory. He enjoyed astronomy and belonged to the Astronomy Society at Leicester Space Centre. He was a prolific reader of history, English literature, science fiction, cosmology, quantum mechanics, physics and French literature. He loved classical music, ballet and opera. As his children got older, he bought an apartment in Spain and this gave him and his family a happy place to visit, making new friends, relaxing and taking the family out on his small boat to water ski (although he could not ski himself). In 1967 John married a former London Hospital nurse, Marion. They had three children and five grandchildren: Simon became a general practitioner; Melissa is a neuro-physiotherapist; Matthew, the youngest son, broke away from medical matters and works in human resources. John became ill with myeloma in 2006. He stayed very positive about his illness. When he was diagnosed with this condition, he actually commented that in his early years of training he had been interested in this disease. Having gone through numerous cycles of chemotherapy courses and two back operations, he passed away in a hospice in Mansfield on 21 June 2016.