Harold Walter Henry Shepperd was a consultant otolaryngologist at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast with a special interest in head and neck surgery. He was born in Belfast on 24 May 1924, the first child of Reginald Henry Shepperd, a director of Ulster bank, and Kathleen Maude Shepperd née West. He was educated at Brackenber House School, Belfast, and then Campbell College, where he was head prefect, and subsequently studied medicine at Queen's University. He qualified in 1947. He was a house officer at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. Deciding on a career in surgery, he trained in Belfast and at the Middlesex Hospital. In 1959 he was appointed to a consultant post at four hospitals close to Belfast, and then in 1966 he moved to the Royal Victoria Hospital and Lagan Valley Hospital, Lisburn. He retired in 1989. He was secretary and later president (from 1985 to 1986) of the section of laryngology, Royal Society of Medicine, and was president of the Irish Otolaryngological Society. He had the distinction of simultaneously chairing the otorhinolaryngology board of examiners of both the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and Ireland. He was an active member of the Royal Naval Reserve, becoming a surgeon commander and senior reserve officer on HMS *Caroline*. He also enjoyed hill walking and photography. He married Cecilia Mary Carr in 1957. Her father was a general practitioner and came from a family of four generations of doctors. They had two sons and a daughter who trained as a nurse at St Thomas' Hospital. This marriage ended in divorce in 1970. His second marriage was to Madeleine June Whitely. Harold Walter Henry Shepperd died on 20 November 2013. He was 89.