Apollo Cokkinis was born at Odessa, Russia, of Greek parents, on 31 October 1895; his father John Cokkinis, was an operatic tenor and impresario. During his early life Cokkinis travelled widely with his father, and received his early education at the Canadian College in Smyrna. After college he decided to take up medicine and studied at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington from which he qualified in 1917, and two years later graduated with honours in the University of London, and one year after that gained his Fellowship. Among his earlier appointments were surgical registrar at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and assistant director to the Surgical Unit at St Mary's. In 1931 he was appointed consultant surgeon to Wembley Hospital, and at that time his chief interest lay in emergency surgery and the treatment of fractures. Soon after the outbreak of the second world war in 1939 Cokkinis joined the RAMC and served as Lieutenant-Colonel in North Africa and Italy, returning to his consultant post in Wembley on leaving the Army. Stimulated by his war experience he started an accident service at Wembley which was one of the first in that area. When Wembley became one of the Charing Cross Group he soon organised clinical demonstrations for the students, which rapidly became very popular. His other duties included membership of the North-West Metropolitan Hospital Board, and owing to his interest in endocrinology he held appointments at the Hillingdon and West Middlesex Hospitals. He became a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons, and his wide knowledge of languages was of great value at meetings in various European cities. In his earlier days he was no mean operatic performer and used to regale his colleagues with many enjoyable recitals. During his active life he suffered several times from fractures, a few quite severe, but through those crises he showed great courage and patience. In 1920 he married Enid Carrell, daughter of a general practitioner, who survived him with their three daughters, one of whom became a physiotherapist. Cokkinis died at Dorking on 17 August 1971, of secondaries in the brain from a carcinoma of the pancreas, aged 75. Publications: *Mesenteric vascular occlusion*. 1929. Contributions to various editions of Rodney Maingot's *Postgraduate surgery* and *Abdominal operations*. Articles on various aspects of abdominal surgery in *British surgical practice, British medical journal, Practitioner*, and *Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine*.