John Taylor was the son of a West Riding GP and was educated at Giggleswick School and Leeds University. Entering the ENT speciality immediately with posts at Leeds and Leicester he did National Service as a graded ENT specialist in the Middle East Command and in Kenya (1949-51). Subsequently he moved through the training grades in Leeds, Leicester and Sheffield, but because of the slow expansion of the consultant grade he emigrated to Southern Rhodesia in 1958. There, in the large Mpilo Hospital at Bulawayo, serving the whole of Matabeleland, he worked for 22 years. He was in the forefront of the developments in microsurgery in Rhodesia and he pioneered the use of ultrasound in the treatment of juvenile laryngeal papillomas. His interests outside his work included the wild life in Africa and, in England, navigating a narrow boat on the canals. He died on 29 January 1980, survived by his wife Diana, his son and three daughters.