Peter Campbell Clifford was born in Ruislip, Middlesex in December 1949 and after early education at the Royal Masonic School in Bushey entered Bristol Medical School, qualifying in 1973. After junior appointments at Bristol, Swindon and the Middlesex Hospital he passed the Fellowship in 1978 and developed an interest in peripheral vascular disease. He was a member of the International Cardio-Vascular Society and returned to Bristol as a British Heart Foundation Fellow and surgical tutor to study techniques of non-invasive monitoring of blood flow in diseased vessels. He submitted his work for an MD thesis and was awarded the degree in 1982. He published many papers on this subject and contributed chapters to surgical textbooks. In 1981 he transferred to Southampton as senior registrar and two years later spent a year at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town pursuing his research on Doppler ultrasound assessment. In addition to his surgical commitments he served as a Major in the Territorial Army, which he joined as an intelligence officer in the 4th Battalion of the Royal Greenjackets and later was reluctantly persuaded into becoming the regiment's doctor. He was a man of immense energy who was great fun to be with. His interests included sailing and shooting and the Christmas revues he organised every year at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol and took up his post in early February 1989. Within three weeks of starting the post for which he had trained so enthusiastically he suffered a fatal myocardial infarction and died on 21 February 1989, aged 39. He was unmarried.