Eardley Samuel Allin was born on 26 August 1907, in Toronto, Ontario, the only son of Edgar William Allin, a surgeon, and of Rose Mary Allin (née Kember), a registered nurse. He was at primary and high schools in Edmonton before entering the University of Alberta where he took a BSc in 1927. He then entered medical school at the University of Toronto and graduated MD with honours in 1931, and with the Chappel Prize in surgery. After intern appointments with Roscoe Graham at Toronto General Hospital he came to England to take the primary FRCS. He was house surgeon at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Tottenham, and at the Princess Beatrice Hospital where he worked with Lawrence Abel. On completing the final FRCS in 1935 he became resident surgical officer at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport until the following year when he returned to Canada. After a brief spell in Toronto he decided to return to Edmonton where he practised as a general surgeon setting up the Allin Clinic, in memory of his father, in partnership with fellow specialists in obstetrics and gynaecology, internal medicine, paediatrics and general practice. He was on the staff of the Misericordia and Royal Alexandra Hospitals and was an instructor in surgery to the University of Alberta. He was consultant in gastrointestinal and breast surgery to the Edmonton Cancer Clinic and was appointed honorary life member of the Alberta Medical Association, of the Canadian Medical Association and the Edmonton Academy of Medicine. He ultimately retired to Banff in 1975 where he continued his business associations as a director of the Commercial Union Insurance Company and the Halifax Insurance Company. In his youth his hobbies were golf, hunting, skiing and aquatic sport but later he became interested in photography and travel. He and Jane Crang had married in 1933. They had three sons and two daughters. One son, Edgar, qualified in medicine When Eardley Allin died on 2 February 1986 he was survived by his wife and five children.