Little information is available about John Oliver. After graduating at Trinity College, Dublin, and postgraduate work at the Middlesex Hospital, he was appointed assistant surgeon at the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat, Golden Square; surgeon to Saffron Walden Hospital, and surgeon and aural specialist at Horton War Hospital, Epsom. He served in the RAMC, with the rank of Captain, and was surgical specialist to No 79 General Hospital, BEF. He eventually retired to Sussex and died in St Francis Hospital at Haywards Heath on 1 March 1963, survived by his wife, Vera.