Aubrey Radford was born at Colenso, Natal, South Africa, on 29 December 1889. He was educated at Oakfield Priory, Verulam and Maritzburg College, South Africa and at Edinburgh University, where he graduated MB ChB in 1913. After being house surgeon to Struthers at the Royal Infirmary he did post-graduate work with Bernard Ward in Birmingham. He joined the RAMC in 1916, reached the rank of Major and was awarded the MC for bravery in the field at the Battle of the Somme. On demobilisation he returned to London and did post-graduate work at St Thomas's and the London Hospital, he took the FRCS in 1919 and returned to South Africa to practise in Durban. He was appointed surgeon to the Addington Hospital and to Springfield and King George V Hospitals for Diseases of the Chest. He was a brilliant versatile general surgeon who had extraordinary technical skill and ability. He never indulged in time-consuming purposeless movements and surgical procedures were carried out in the most expeditious gentle atraumatic manner. He was in fact the anaesthetist's dream. For 29 years he was a member of the South African Medical and Dental Council. He was Chairman of the Association of Surgeons of South Africa. He was external examiner to the Witwatersrand, Capetown and Natal Universities and was a Member of Parliament from 1958 to 1970. He was invited by Prime Minister General Smuts to attend the Royal Family while in Natal in 1947. He married Yvonne Wiggishoff in Paris in 1919. They had no children. He died on 13 October 1974, aged 84 years.