John Frederick North (known as 'JFN') was a consultant plastic surgeon in the west Midlands. He was born in Southport, Lancashire, on 12 May 1917, the only child of John William Allen North, a solicitor, and Frances Jane North née Allen. He went to school at Cheltenham College, and studied medicine at Sidney College, Cambridge, then St Thomas's Hospital Medical School. He qualified in 1941 and spent the rest of the Second World War in the Royal Navy. After the war he studied and passed his FRCS (in 1947), then trained in plastic surgery at Stoke Mandeville Hospital under the tutelage of Thomas Pomfret Kilner. He was appointed consultant plastic surgeon to the West Midlands Regional Plastic Surgery Unit, Wordsley Hospital with Oliver Mansfield. His workload was very heavy, servicing a population of nearly five million. There were with clinics in Burton-upon-Trent, West Bromwich, Walsall, Solihull and Hereford. He was an accomplished surgeon and an astute clinician with perfect manners. He was a good teacher because of his encouragement and enthusiasm, and was always accessible. He oversaw the expansion of plastic surgery in the region with the introduction of specialists in major head and neck surgery, hand surgery and craniofacial surgery. He was a member of the council of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons for two three-year periods. He wrote papers on congenital deformities, and plastic surgery reconstructions, as well as a history of the west Midlands plastic surgery service. JFN was a recognised authority on the treatment of cleft lip and palate. In 1941 he married Audrey Fisher. They had two daughters and a son. John retired in the mid-1980s and continued a very active life, alongside his wife. He kept fit and well by hill walking, playing golf, piano, singing and photography. John died on 22 June 2008 at the age of 91.