Born at Kadina, South Australia on 16 August 1903, eldest child and only son of Herbert Richard Letcher MB ChB Melbourne, who was in general practice at Adelaide from 1896 to 1940, and his wife née Sands, he was educated at St Peter's College, the University, and the Royal Hospital at Adelaide, qualified in 1927, and practised as his father's assistant at 82 Hutt Street, Adelaide. Letcher then came to England, and after holding resident posts at the East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, the Victoria Hospital, Southend, the Radium Institute, and the Central Middlesex Hospital, he settled at 51 Woodhurst Road, Acton in 1937, and became surgeon to Acton Hospital. He was particularly interested in the treatment of the acute abdomen and in urology. During the war of 1939-45 he was a surgical specialist with the rank of Major RAMC, and served in the Middle East and the Sudan. He returned to Acton after the war, and died there on 10 September 1952, aged 49. Letcher married in 1934 Dorothy Dalton, who survived him with two sons. He was a short dapper man, of vitality and friendliness; he was a good cricketer and tennis player, and swam well; he was also interested in racing, and enjoyed exploring the English countryside. Publication: Encrustation of the bladder as a result of alkaline cystitis, with N M Matheson. *Brit J Surg* 1936, 23, 716.