Born on 8 June 1914 in Cardiff, Eric Granville Dolton was educated at Acton County School and St Thomas's Hospital. He qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in January 1938 and was awarded the degree of MB BS London in May of the same year. He obtained FRCS in 1940. Having had a leg amputated he was not accepted for war service. After junior posts at St Thomas's he was resident assistant surgeon at that hospital from 1942 to 1945. He later held resident surgical officer posts at Brompton Hospital and Bristol Royal Infirmary before being appointed in 1946 to the staff of the Royal Hospital, Wolverhampton. He was Past President of the Midland Thoracic Society and had served on the Council of the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons. In 1963 he was Chairman of the South Staffordshire Division of the British Medical Association. When Eric Dolton went to Wolverhampton the management of pulmonary tuberculosis made heavy demands on the small number of trained thoracic surgeons available, and his practice soon included hospitals and sanatoria scattered throughout Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Worcestershire. The bulk of his work in the early days was concerned with chronic pulmonary disease, but soon after his appointment his work on the repair and reconstruction of intrathoracic anomalies so impressed his paediatrician colleague that he was invited to take on the unofficial role of paediatric surgeon. This collaboration continued until his retirement. He contributed numerous papers to the *Lancet* and to *Archives of disease in childhood*. In 1949 he married Loma d'Abreu, a cousin of A L d'Abreu and F A d'Abreu, both Fellows of the College. When he was sixteen years old his left leg was amputated following a football injury and throughout his working life he required repeated surgical attention and was seldom free from pain or discomfort. His principal recreation was golf and for many years he played off a single figure handicap. His physical stamina and energy were matched by a cultivated aequanimitas and he would never allow himself any emotional indulgence that might impair the confidence of his theatre team. He faced the almost total disability of his last years with great courage and cheerfulness, reinforced by the devoted attention of his wife. He died on 5 May 1976.