Edmond Nicoll came from a long line of doctors and was the fourth generation of his family to train at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He qualified in 1940 and became house surgeon to Reginald Vick at Friern Barnet Hospital. He then joined the RAMC and served in the Middle East as a Regimental Medical Officer to the 4th Hussars. He later served in Italy and was awarded the Military Cross. After demobilisation he became chief assistant in orthopaedics to Sidney Higgs and Jackson Burrows at St Bartholomew's Hospital and took his Primary FRCS in 1947. Before taking the Final Examination, he moved to the University of Virginia as Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics and orthopaedic surgeon to the Martha Jefferson Hospital. He then proceeded MD and FACS. He invented a pneumatic splint, which he first used on a polo pony and adapted for human use. He remained in the United States for the rest of his life, pursuing a busy and successful practice. In private life he was a first-class sportsman, being a keen horseman, polo player and joint Master of the Farmington foxhounds. Regrettably, illness caused him to retire early, but he continued to ride and drove a four-in-hand coach until a month before his death. He was often a competitor and sometimes a judge at international coaching events, including on one occasion the Royal Windsor Horse Show. In 1978 he underwent major surgery and in 1980 was honoured by being admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England by election. He died on 2 July 1981, aged 64 years. In 1954 Nicoll married Mollie Mackintosh of Cleveland, Ohio, who survived him together with two sons and a daughter, their youngest son having died in a motoring accident.