John Walkden was a senior orthopaedic registrar at the United Liverpool Hospitals and orthopaedic and surgical registrar to the professorial unit of Broadgreen Hospital Liverpool. He then became a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at West Cheshire and Central Wirral Hospitals. He was a member of the Liverpool Medical Institute, and the Chester and North Wales Medical Society. He lived in Preston on the Hill near Warrington and he died on 11 June 2005, survived by his wife.