Born in London 12 August 1879, he was educated at St Paul's School and Guy's Hospital, where he qualified as a dental surgeon before going on to medicine. After resident posts at Great Ormond Street, St Thomas's and Manchester Royal Infirmary, he was appointed in 1905 to the Nottingham General Hospital. During his four years there he took a leading part in the Medico-Chirurgical Society. He was elected surgeon to Skegness Hospital in 1909, where his duties were interrupted by service in the RAMC during the first world war and in the expedition to Archangel (1919). Black was appointed professor of surgery at Singapore, and surgeon to the General Hospital, in 1922. He published one of the first reports on periarterial sympathectomy in the *British Medical Journal*, 1924, 2, 165-166. After retiring from Singapore he settled in London, but served in the RAF medical service during the second world war. He had travelled extensively by car over much of Europe and South-East Asia, and was a regular bridge-player at the East India Club. He died unmarried on 27 January 1959, aged 79.