Eric Newton was a consultant neurosurgeon at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary. He was born in Surrey in 1919, but was educated in northern India. He gained an Indian Army scholarship to study medicine at Madras Medical School and qualified in 1942, during the Second World War. He immediately became a medical officer in India, the Maldives and then Ceylon. In 1946 he returned to the UK, and four years later became a resident surgical officer at the Royal Salop Infirmary, Shrewsbury. In his free time he travelled to Birmingham to learn more about neurosurgical techniques. Here he was influenced by Brodie Hughes and Jack Small, both leading neurosurgeons. In 1951 Newton was appointed as a neurosurgical registrar at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. He then became a senior neurosurgical registrar at West Midlands Neurosurgical Centre in Smethwick, and in 1959 he was appointed as a consultant there, with responsibility for looking after patients in the north of the region. In 1961 he set up a new neurosurgical unit in the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary, Stoke-on-Trent, and for about 10 years he was singlehanded - the only neurosurgeon between Birmingham and Manchester. He was awarded a Royal College of Surgeons Hunterian professorship in 1968. He had many other interests outside medicine, including chess. He played for Stafford chess club for 25 years, was captain of the club team for many competitions, became chairman and was later made honorary president. He was married to Eileen, a former nurse, whom he met at the Royal Salop Infirmary. They had two sons, James and John, who both became doctors. Eric Newton died on 10 January 2011 and was survived by his family.