Harry Archibald Pearce went to St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School and qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1937, graduating with the London University MB BS in the same year. He became casualty house surgeon at St Bartholomew's, and developing a special interest in orthopaedics early in his career, he was appointed house surgeon to the Wingfield-Morris Hospital, Oxford. He then moved to the London Hospital to the post of senior registrar in the accident and orthopaedic department and having obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1947, ultimately reached consultant status as orthopaedic surgeon to the South-East Essex Hospital Group, and became a member of the British Orthopaedic Association. Pearce made his home at Hutton near Brentwood, Essex, and there he had a full and happy family life till he died at his home on 5 June 1971.