Born in 1903, son of the Rev Dr John Steele. He was educated at University College Hospital, where he won the Bruce, Liston, Erichsen, Aichison, and Atkinson Morley medals and scholarships. He also won a gold medal at the University of London MB BS examination. After qualification he served as house surgeon, house physician, obstetric assistant, and assistant to the surgical unit at the Hospital, and first assistant at the Royal Ear Hospital, the ear department of University College Hospital. He also served as clinical assistant at St Peter's Hospital for Stone. Steele then settled in practice at Guildford, living at Stoney Cross, 11 Downside Road. He was appointed surgeon to St Luke's Hospital, Guildford, and to the Royal Surrey County Hospital in 1928; and was also surgeon to the ear, nose, and throat departments of the Aldershot, Farnham, and Fleet Hospitals. In partnership with Dr Heward Bell, he had a large practice in the district. Steele's wife, sister of Dr Charles Hansard Lack of Wembley, died after a long illness in the spring of 1946. He suffered from insomnia and depression, and took poison from which he died in the garage of his house at Guildford on 10 November 1946, aged 43. He was survived by his parents and by his two sons. The funeral was at North Street Congregational Church, Guildford on 15 November. Publications: Carcinoma of the oesophagus, a method of treatment by means of radon seeds, with T B Jobson. *Brit med J* 1934, 1, 233. Delayed rupture of spleen, with H Bell. *Lancet*, 1944, 1, 598. Resection of carcinoma of the oesophagus. *Lancet*, 1944, 2, 797.