Born at Cirencester 12 November 1847 the third son and youngest child of Samuel Lediard, a solicitor, and Mary Croft Whatley, his wife. The Lediards were of the same family as Thomas Lediard, FRS, (1685-1743) the historian of Marlborough. H A Lediard entered Cheltenham College at Michaelmas term 1862 and left in 1865. He then went to study medicine at Edinburgh. Here he acted for two years as house surgeon at the old Infirmary to James Spence, became an ardent admirer of Syme and a disciple of Lister. In 1878 he was house surgeon at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and at the end of his tenure of office came to London, where he was assistant medical officer to the Sick Asylum at Highgate and then to the Central London Sick Asylum at Cleveland Street. In 1880 he joined the firm of W B Page and J A Macdougall at Carlisle, bringing with him a recommendation from James Matthews Duncan. He was immediately appointed surgeon to the Cumberland Infirmary and held office until 1930, when he resigned and was elected consulting surgeon and vice-president. He also became surgeon to the London and North Western Railway, medical officer to the Post Office, and surgeon to the gaol. He married in May 1875 Elizabeth Ann Wright; she survived him with a daughter and died 22 June 1935. His elder daughter died during the war whilst serving as a VAD. He died at Woodview, Chatsworth Square, Carlisle on 31 October 1932 and was buried, after cremation at Darlington, in Crosthwaite churchyard near Keswick. A man of strong character, independent mind, and unconventional manners, Lediard did much for surgery in Carlisle and the surrounding district. He early mastered and practised the details of Listerian surgery and introduced the methods into the Carlisle Infirmary, where in 1897 he was instrumental in causing an X-ray apparatus to be installed. He had a highly cultivated mind and a discriminating judgement in matters of art and music. A lover of animals he detested the motor car and to the last drove about in a horse-drawn victoria, the last of its kind to be seen in the city and district. He excised successfully the artery and part of the vein for the cure of a popliteal aneurysm, but does not seem to have published the case. Publications: Ecchymoses from natural causes. *Med-Chir Trans* 1896, 79, 75-86. Case of successful excision of a subclavian aneurysm. *Trans Clin Soc Lond* 1900 33, 246. Acromegaly and operation for goitre. *Ibid* 1903, 36, 190. Melanotic sarcoma of choroid with metastases in liver and intestine. *Trans Ophthal Soc UK* 1912, 32, 239-244. Also other papers in the *Trans Clin Soc Lond* and the *Trans Ophthal Soc UK*, and articles on archaeological subjects.