Norman Lock was born in Cambridge on 18 March 1885, the son of the Reverend John Bascombe Lock, Fellow and Bursar of Gonville and Caius College, who had previously been for twelve years mathematics master at Eton. He was the third son in a family of four boys and a girl, two of his brothers becoming Fellows of Caius College while their father was still a Fellow. Norman went first to King's College Choir School, Cambridge, then to Aysgarth Preparatory School in Yorkshire and finally to Charterhouse where he distinguished himself by winning a number of prizes for mathematics and science. He entered Caius College in 1904 where he became a scholar and research student and gained first class honours in the Natural Science Tripos Parts I and II. For his clinical course he came to St Thomas's Hospital and qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1911. The influence of Cyril Nitch and Cuthbert Wallace inclined him towards surgery, and after holding house posts in surgery and obstetrics he passed the Cambridge MB, BCh in 1912 and the FRCS in 1913. During the first world war he was a Captain RAMC from 1915-1919. His interest then turned to orthopaedics, and after an appointment as surgical specialist at the Manor Orthopaedic Hospital, Epsom, he settled in Exeter as consulting surgeon to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, and the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital, to which he was attached for the rest of his professional life. As an operator he was quick and neat, and had the reputation of always being ready to respond to any emergency call, even if it involved having to operate in a patient's own home, but he was generally regarded as a formidable character who was very difficult to approach. He was unusually well-read, and had a great love of music; he was also an expert in growing daffodils, and had a considerable interest in astronomy - truly a man of many parts. He was secretary of the Exeter Division of the British Medical Association from 1922-1929 and its Chairman from 1931-1934. After he retired from practice he made his home at Blandford Forum and he died there of heart failure complicating bronchopneumonia on 12 November 1972 at the age of 87. He was survived by his wife and daughter, and also by a son and two daughters of a former marriage. His son became a Surgeon-Captain in the Royal Navy.