Stanley Samuel Beare was born on 20 June 1890 at Newton Abbot, Devon, the son of Samuel Beare an ironmonger and engineer, and Alice Austin Beer, whose father was a journalist and Crimean War veteran. He was educated at Newton Abbot Grammar School and Strand School, King's College, London. In 1909 he entered the Middlesex Hospital Medical and Dental Schools and won prizes in chemistry, physics and biology but these studies were interrupted when he started his dental training. He achieved the LDS in 1912 and was awarded the Rymen gold medal as the most distinguished final year student. He never practised dentistry and qualified medically in 1914 with the Conjoint Diploma and held several junior appointments at the Middlesex Hospital, including house surgeon to Sir John Bland-Sutton and Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor. At the outbreak of war in 1914 Samuel Beare joined the Royal Navy as Surgeon-Lieutenant, serving until 1919. In the part he played in the Zeebrugge raid he was awarded the OBE (Mil) and he was mentioned in despatches by Admiral Sir Roger Keyes. Returning in 1919 to the Middlesex Hospital he was appointed to the important post of resident surgical officer, following a few months as resident assistant anaesthetist. He carried out much emergency work and gained considerable surgical experience, so that when he entered general practice in Weybridge, he carried out the surgery of the practice and also of the district. At the inception of the National Health Service Samuel Beare became a full- time surgical consultant at the Woking and Chertsey group of hospitals. He was elected FRCS in 1947 as a member of the College of more than 20 years' standing. In 1956 he retired from the NHS and was appointed Emeritus Surgeon, but continued in private practice. Following retirement with more time to spare, he returned in 1959 to the Middlesex Hospital as honorary curator of the Ferens Institute, director of the department of medical illustration and medical advisor to the records department. He carried out all this work most conscientiously and was much loved by everyone who knew him. He was also advisor in cancer registration to the North-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and a Fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. Samuel Beare possessed superb surgical skill and looked after all his patients with unremitting care. He had a sympathetic personality with a keen sense of humour; his patients adored him. His younger colleagues at the Middlesex Hospital in his later years looked forward to his presence at the staff lunch table listening to his stories with fascination which often concerned his chief hobby of fishing for trout and salmon. He also told anecdeotes about the great characters who had taught at the Middlesex Hospital who had been his fellow students. He played tennis when younger and was swimming regularly at 82 years! He married in 1920 and he and his wife had a son, Robin, who became a plastic surgeon and was a member of the Court of Examiners of the College. Samuel Beare died on 13 June 1978 after a short illness, survived by his second wife.