Dick Rees was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at West Wales District General Hospital, Carmarthen. He was educated at Bishop Gore Grammar School, Swansea, and then went on to study medicine at Middlesex Hospital medical school. After qualifying he did 18 months of house appointments before joining the RAMC, where he was attached to the 6th Airborne Division and saw active service on D-day and during the Rhine crossing campaign, wining the Croix de Guerre (with palm) and being mentioned in despatches. After the war, he returned to be an anatomy demonstrator at the Royal Free Hospital, and later was an RMO at the Priory Street Infirmary, Carmarthen, and senior registrar at Cardiff Royal Infirmary. He was appointed as the first dedicated orthopaedic surgeon to the South West Wales hospital management committee in Carmarthen. On retiring from the NHS in 1978 he worked as a visiting professor at the medical school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and was a consultant and adviser in Dacca, Bangladesh, and in Kano, Nigeria. He was a supporter of the use of Welsh and a keen golfer. He died on 12 October 2004, and is survived by his wife Mair, two daughters and three sons.