Bill Doey was a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in London. He was born in Bessbrook, county Armagh, Northern Ireland, on 22 February 1912, the son of Rev Thomas Doey, a Presbyterian minister. His mother was Charlotte Chesney née McCay, the daughter of a minister and farmer. Bill was educated at the Academical Institution, Coleraine, Derry, and at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He then completed his clinical studies at the London Hospital, where he did house jobs until the outbreak of the second world war. From 1940 to 1946 he served in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, as a squadron leader and ENT specialist, in mobile field hospitals in France, Belgium and Holland. After the war, he was appointed as a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, and as a lecturer at the Institute of Laryngology and Otology. He also held appointments at St Albans City Hospital and the Hemel Hempstead Hospital. He had a particular interest in medical history, especially that of the fatal illness of Crown Prince Friedrich, Queen Victoria’s son-in-law, who had been treated by Sir Morell MacKenzie. He lectured on the subject at the Kopfklinikum, Wurzburg, Germany. Bill’s lifelong interest in fishing went back to his boyhood days in Northern Ireland, and throughout his life he and his wife, Audrey Mariamné née Newman, whom he married in June 1940, enjoyed many fishing holidays. He retired to Llandeilo, where they renovated an old farmhouse and landscaped a garden out of a former paddock. He enjoyed music, languages, photography and driving – he was a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists. He died from a heart condition on 12 January 2004, leaving three daughters, Virginia, Louise and Angela, and four grandchildren, Mariamné, Corinna, Sibylle and Niklas.