Peter Bates was a consultant surgeon for Dartford and Gravesham Health Authority. He was born in Belfast on 12 August 1934. His father, Charles Donald Bates, retired from the Army and became a company director. His mother, Gladys Elizabeth Wilson, qualified in medicine from Queen's University, Belfast, as did her brother Robert Belshaw Wilson. In the 1940s Peter's mother and uncle were in general practice together at Morecombe and Heysham, Lancashire. Educated initially in Belfast, Peter attended the Royal Grammar School, Lancaster, from 1946 until 1953. He was already showing his sporting prowess, being captain of rugby and *victor ludorum* (from 1951 to 1953) and also played on the wing for Lancashire schoolboys. He won the Wewell prize as the outstanding boy in the fifth form. In 1953 Peter went up to Gonville and Caius, Cambridge, where he was awarded his BA degree. Already interested in the theatre, he would persuade his mother to send bouquets of flowers to the stage door at the theatre in Morecombe if a favourite actress was playing there! He went to St Mary's Hospital Medical School in 1956 for his clinical training. At medical school Peter's company was sought after for his friendly and jovial personality. A great socialiser and party-goer, he was an active member of the Film Artists Association, members of which were in great demand as film extras at the time. During the late 1950s many Mary's men appeared in British film classics such as Sink the Bismark!, A Night to Remember, Battle of the River Plate, Suddenly, Last Summer and Carve Her Name With Pride. Peter played on the wing for Mary's with great enthusiasm on many occasions and, while not always the first choice for the first XV, he captained the A team regularly. It was in 1959 that disaster struck. While returning from a party the car in which he was a passenger skidded off the road and hit a bank. Peter fractured his skull and lost the sight of one eye. He made a remarkable recovery, but close friends recognised that his personality had changed. He became more 'edgy' and could take offence easily. He qualified MB BChir in 1961. Peter's house jobs were at the West Middlesex Hospital (with J Scholefield and D E Bolt), where he stayed on for senior house officer appointments in casualty, orthopaedics and general surgery. It was while at the West Middlesex that Peter married Cynthia Joan Trace, a radiographer at the hospital, in 1964. The marriage was dissolved in 1970. Surgical training continued with a registrar rotation in general surgery and urology at Hillingdon Hospital (with G W Duncan and H G Hanley). He was awarded his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1967 and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1970. Peter married again in 1971, this time to an actress, Margaret Joan Wright, who as Maggie Wright, in September 1968, had become the first person to appear fully naked on the legitimate British stage as Helen of Troy in a Royal Shakespeare production of Marlowe's *Faustus*. This marriage was dissolved in 1980. There were no children of either marriage. Although never obtaining a substantive senior registrar post, Peter soon became a regular face at St Mary's Hospital as a lecturer and an honorary senior registrar working with W T Irvine, L L Bromley, H H G Eastcott and J L Stephen. He was in considerable demand as a locum consultant surgeon during the late 1960s, working at Mount Vernon, East Ham and Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford. In January 1974 Peter was appointed as a consultant general surgeon to Dartford and Gravesham Health Authority, a position he held until his retirement in 1991. During these 17 years the sociable aspects of his personality flourished, with membership of many learned societies including the Royal Society of Medicine, the British Society of Gastroenterology, the British Association of Surgical Oncology, the European Society of Surgical Oncology and the Association of Coloproctology. He was a member of the British Medical Association, the World Medical Association, the Anglo-American Medical Society and the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He also found time to be a member of the Hunterian Society, was on the livery committee of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and a Freemason. While at Dartford Peter was always available to give an opinion and was respected by his colleagues. He was particularly good with children and operated skilfully on many cases of congenital pyloric stenosis. He was always a willing contributor to lunchtime educational sessions for junior staff. Peter chaired a number of hospital committees and became adept at dealing with 'difficult' colleagues. From 1974 until 1983 he was the Royal College surgical tutor. Outside surgery, Peter had many interests, all of which he was able to enjoy during his retirement. Although he had hung up his rugby boots, he was a regular visitor to Twickenham, easily recognised in his duffel coat and Mary's scarf. Always interested in the theatre, he supported, often financially, many fringe events in small halls and rooms above pubs, as well as more major productions in the West End. The sociable aspects of the professional organisations he had enjoyed so much while a surgeon were soon replaced by freemasonry. With his typical enthusiasm he embraced it in its various forms. A great joiner, and always ready to subscribe to be a founder, he was well known on the masonic circuit. He retained a great affection for his old Cambridge college and assisted in the foundation of the Harold Gillies fund to provide financial assistance for medical students at Gonville and Caius, and continued to be its generous benefactor. In 1981 Peter arranged a memorial service for a friend at St Paul's Church in Covent Garden and subsequently became a regular worshipper there. For 16 years he was a churchwarden. Although a very clubbable man, Peter continued to live alone, sharing his Pimlico flat with a number of cats. Sadly, the onset of progressive dementia forced him into a nursing home in 2005, where he died on 28 November 2011.