Born on 30 May 1921 Alvarez was educated in France and Spain, and then at Solihull School and Birmingham University, graduating there in 1945. After three years postgraduate training, especially in thoracovascular surgery, first at St Chad's Hospital, Birmingham, and later in the United States at Boston and Denver, he served in the RAMC as a surgical specialist in Northern Ireland 1948-50. He took the FRCS in 1951 and was surgical registrar at the Royal Infirmary, Preston. He then emigrated to British Columbia where he became chief consultant surgeon to the Regional Hospital at Trail. He died there after long illness on 31 March 1973, aged 51, survived by his wife and six children. Arthur Alvarez was an excellent teacher of surgery and improved the professional standards of his district. He wrote and spoke equally well in English, French and Spanish. He was a keen fisherman and a good shot.