Mervyn Bell was consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Wigan from 1977 to 2004. Born in Hove in 1937, he qualified from Guy's Hospital in London working in the fields of general surgery and neurosurgery. On developing an interest in orthopaedics he moved to the Royal Free Hospital and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford before moving to Lancashire for his first consultant post. He specialised in surgery of the knee and spine and contributed what must have been an early article on hang gliding injuries to the journal *Injury* in 1976. Elected president of the Wigan division of the BMA in 1986 he continued working until shortly before his death. Travelling and languages were his passions and he was fluent in Spanish (in which he had a degree), French and German - he was working towards a degree in the latter before he became ill. He died from T cell lymphoma on 1 August 2005 leaving his wife, Dolores, and two daughters.