Anthony Harold Charles was born on 14 May 1908, the second son of H.P. Charles. His early education was at Dulwich College after which he went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from 1927 to 1930. His sporting interests included rugby, cricket and boxing and he represented Cambridge University as middle weight in the contest against Oxford on 6 March 1930, gaining a half blue. After leaving Cambridge he went to St George's Hospital for his clinical studies, qualifying in 1933. His early appointments were as house surgeon at St George's Hospital and later at the Royal United Hospital, Bath. In 1953 he was awarded the Allingham Scholarship in surgery by St George's Hospital Medical School and returned to work at the hospital. He passed the FRCS in 1937 and the MRCOG two years later and held the posts of resident assistant surgeon and gynaecology registrar at the hospital. In 1939 he joined the Territorial Army as a surgical specialist, serving overseas in Malta, Jerusalem and Cairo, where he was officer commanding the surgical division of 15th Scottish General Hospital and gynaecological adviser to Middle East Forces. He remained in the Territorial Army after the war serving as Officer Commanding and later Honorary Colonel of No. 308 (County of London) General Hospital TA and VR. After the war he was appointed consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at St George's Hospital, consultant surgeon to the Samaritan Hospital for Women, consultant gynaecologist to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and to Caterham and District Hospital. He was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1951 and appointed honorary surgeon to Her Majesty the Queen from 1957 to 1959. He was vice-dean at St George's Hospital Medical School and examiner in midwifery and gynaecology to the Universities of Cambridge and London, the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Later in life he examined for the professional and linguistic board. In addition he had a large private practice which included many visitors from overseas and in 1950 he went to Baghdad to treat the Queen Mother of Iraq. He was honorary gynaecological surgeon at King Edward VII Hospital for Officers, President of the Chelsea Clinical Society and President of the Section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Royal Society of Medicine. He joined the Livery of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1961 and was a Freeman of the City of London. He was also president of the Alleyn Club, incorporating old boys of Dulwich School and president of the Rosslyn Park Football Club, having played rugby for the club before the war. He published many articles in professional journals and was the author of the chapter *Women in sport* in Armstrong and Tucker's *Injuries in sport*, 1964. In 1962 he married Rosemary Hubert who had been his theatre sister and in the following year he took up farming at West Chiltington, near Pulborough. He retired from the health service in 1973 but continued with his private practice for many years, spending week-day evenings at his club in St James's Square and returning at the week-ends to Sussex to look after his bullocks and to undertake much of the manual work personally. He was greatly in demand as an expert witness and spent much time at the Law Courts in Edinburgh and London, defending colleagues accused of professional negligence. He died on 25 November 1990 aged 82 and is survived by his wife and three daughters, Alyson, Kate and Harriet.