The only son of Thomas Ouston, of Holmefield. He was educated at the Yorkshire College and at Guy's Hospital. For two or three years he held important posts at Leeds General Infirmary, where he was Senior House Surgeon and Ophthalmic and Aural House Surgeon, and at Horsforth, where he was Resident Medical Officer at the Ida Hospital. In 1895 he took over the practice of Dr Robertson in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and at once became prominent in the medical work of the town. Relinquishing general practice after a time, Ouston specialized in diseases of the throat and ear and in the surgical diseases of children. He was appointed Surgeon to the Fleming Memorial Hospital for Sick Children, and resigned this post when he was Senior Surgeon shortly before his death, when he was also Surgeon to the Newcastle Throat and Ear Hospital and a Referee under the Workmen's Compensation Act. He contributed frequently to the local Medical Societies and was President of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Clinical Society. For the two years preceding his death he had been Secretary to the local division of the British Medical Association, and showed considerable ability at a difficult turn in the Association's affairs. He was much sought after in consultation in throat and ear cases. In his work he showed much originality, and had little respect for the ordinary textbook methods. Only a few weeks before his death he operated on a patient with a lesion in one semicircular canal. He devised an operation for exposing the canal, and was successful in finding and removing the cause of the trouble. He performed many mastoid operations, and kept careful records of these with a view to publication. In the year before his death he used radium successfully in the treatment of intranasal lupus. He was a universal favourite, and in his professional relationships scrupulously honourable, expecting to be treated by his colleagues as he treated them. In his holidays Ouston excelled as a mountaineer, and was a keen member of the Alpine Club. He climbed not only in the Alps and in the English Lakes, Wales, and Scotland, but also in Corsica, the Tyrol, Norway, and the Lofoten Islands. He and his friend, Mr Mundahl, a barrister, were the first to ascend Raeka in the Lofoten Islands, but were successful only after several attempts. The same pair were the second party to ascend Taponato in Corsica, and it was Ouston's ambition to conquer the hitherto impregnable Sulitielma in Northern Norway. He took admirable photographs when on his expeditions, and described his experiences in entertaining magic lantern lectures. He may be said to have died in harness, for he caught a chill while out on his rounds ten days before his death, and could not shake off its effects despite his physical strength and athletic stature. He died at 1 Saville Place, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on August 1st, 1911, and was buried at St Andrew's Cemetery. Mrs Ouston, to whom he had only recently been married, was Mary, daughter of E Taylor, of Airton. Publications:- "Case of Antro-tympanic Disease and Bezold's Mastoid Abscess Complicated with Extradural Abscess; Paralysis on Same Side as Lesion; Recovery." - *Brit Med Jour*, 1898, i, 208. "Operation for Protruding Auricles." - *Ibid*, 1903, ii, 16.