Born at Fairfield Road, Bristol, on 1 October 1865, the eldest child of David Rayner, wholesale textile merchant, and his wife, Edith Fryer. He was educated at Observatory House School, Bristol, under Dr Cooper, and at the Bristol Medical School. After working in the physiological laboratories, he decided to specialize in obstetrics and served on the staff of the Bristol Maternity Hospital. He took the Fellowship in 1896, and next year was appointed assistant physician accoucheur at the Bristol General Hospital, becoming physician accoucheur in 1923, when the title was changed to obstetric physician and gynaecologist. He became, director of clinical obstetrics at Bristol University in 1925, and the next year was elected professor of obstetrics, and was made emeritus professor on retiring in 1932. In 1930 he had received the ChM degree. Rayner examined in obstetrics for the University of Wales and the Central Midwives Board. During the 1914-18 war he served at the Beaufort War Hospital, Fishponds, Bristol. He was president of the Bristol Medico-chirurgical Society in 1930-31, and vice-president of the section of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Bath meeting of the British Medical Association in 1925. In 1929 he was elected a foundation Fellow of the British (now Royal) College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He was a member of the Gynaecological Visiting Society, and secretary 1913 and 1928 of the Bristol Medical Reading Society. "Charlie" Rayner had a large consulting practice till the end of his long life as he unselfishly helped absent colleagues during the war of 1939-45. He lived very simply at 9 Lansdown Place, Clifton, with his sister, and never married. In 1935 he suffered an attack of obliterative endarteritis and his right leg was amputated. Rayner was wholly devoted to his work, but had a cultivated love of music and literature. He walked, when possible, to all appointments, always carrying an umbrella. He was quite unmercenary, and hid his kindness and charm under a shy manner. He died in a Clifton nursing-home on 21 October 1945, three weeks after his eightieth birthday. Publications: Puerperal sepsis. *Birm med Rev* 1928, 3, 224. On the relation of gynaecology to the glands of internal secretion. *Bristol med chir J* 1931, 48, 1.