Ralph Coyte, or "Dan" as he was generally known to his friends, was born on 3 May 1893 and went to Bart's for his medical studies, and while there distinguished himself on the rugger field. Early in the first world war he served in the Royal Navy as a Surgeon Probationer, being discharged later to complete his medical training, which he did by taking the Conjoint Diploma in 1917. The London degree followed in 1920 after junior hospital appointments at St Bartholomew's, and he passed the FRCS examination in 1921. At that time he joined the Territorial Army, and military service figured prominently in the rest of his career. He was appointed honorary surgeon to the Westminster Hospital, and to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, but will be remembered chiefly for the work he did as surgeon to the Prince of Wales's Hospital, Tottenham, where he took a leading part in the administrative as well as the clinical work of the hospital, and his kindly face and diplomacy were invaluable in smoothing out some of the thorny problems encountered after the coming of the National Health Service in 1948. In the second world war he served as a Lieutenant-Colonel RAMC in charge of the surgical division of a hospital in North Africa. He was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the OBE (Military) for his services, and retired with the rank of Colonel. Later still he was recalled and spent four years in Germany as surgeon in charge of military hospitals at Munster and Berlin. He continued to do surgical locums until he was 75, and it was only in old age that his health began to fail. Dan was genuinely interested in the welfare and careers of his housemen and registrars, who deeply appreciated his help and instruction. His youthful enthusiasm for games turned in later life to enjoyment of golf and stamp collecting, and he derived much pleasure from attending annual gatherings of his contemporaries at Bart's, which he was able to do until within a year of his death on 25 May 1973, aged 80. He was survived by his wife and a daughter who became a physiotherapist.