John Candy was born at Newport, Monmouthshire, on 8 January 1924, the son of Thomas Ignatius Candy, MD Belfast, a consulting radiologist. His paternal uncle was a general practitioner in Edinburgh. He was educated at Dolgelly Grammar School and Guy's Hospital Medical School which he entered in 1941. He graduated MB BS London 1946; obtained the FRCS in 1954 and the MS London 1962. He held numerous resident appointments at the Guy's Hospital Unit at the Southern Hospital, Dartford, at the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital and at Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup. He was registrar in radiotherapy at Guy's, senior surgical registrar at the Ipswich and East Suffolk Hospital for four and a half years and research assistant at the Middlesex Hospital for a year. He was also resident surgical officer at St Mark's Hospital. He did his National Service in the Royal Navy from June 1947 to October 1949. He was appointed consultant surgeon to the Miller General Hospital and the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich. He was a general surgeon with main interest in the alimentary tract. A fine clinician and operative surgeon, his marvellous kindness to his patients earned their devotion. He was particularly skilled in the surgery of the large bowel and made several valuable contributions to the literature of surgery. First and last a clinician, his capacity for administration was greatly appreciated by his colleagues of both hospitals, where he was chairman of many committees. In his last few years he chaired the surgical division and the district medical committee with great skill. His death from coronary occlusion at the early age of 52 years was a shock to all his friends. In 1951 he married Jean Gilbard, MB BS, and they had one son and one daughter. They were divorced in 1971.