Maurice Lawrence Treston was born on 9 February 1891, and received his early education in the United States. He came to the London Hospital for the medical course and qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1913. After junior hospital posts at the London Hospital and at Colchester he passed into the Indian Medical Service shortly before the first world war, in which he served on the North West Frontier and in Mesopotamia, being mentioned in dispatches. He was graded as a surgical specialist even before he obtained the FRCS when on study leave in 1921. In 1923 Treston was posted to Burma where he did excellent work, first in a remote hill station, and later in Rangoon where, in 1931, he was appointed Professor of Gynaecology and Obstetrics and superintendent of the Dufferin Hospital. He became FRCOG in 1934. In 1941 he was appointed Inspector General of Civil Hospitals in Burma, but the war necessitated the evacuation of hospitals to Mandalay and subsequent chaos. However, Treston's good work was rewarded by the CBE in 1944. He retired from the service with the rank of Colonel in 1947, and after practising his specialty in Rhodesia for eight years he ultimately settled in Ireland. Treston was twice married, first to Isobel and, after her death, to Daphne who survived him when he died peacefully in hospital on 14 April 1970.