Howard Foy was born on 28 September 1919 at Penrhyndeudraeth, Merionethshire (now Gwynedd). He graduated MB ChB at Liverpool in June 1943 and was house surgeon to Professor O Herbert Williams from July of that year to June 1944. He was then senior house surgeon to Professor T P McMurray until March 1946, when he served in the RAF orthopaedic and rehabilitation service until December 1948. He was a surgical registrar at Prescott, Lancashire from January until October 1949 and then registrar to Professor Charles Wells for two years. After four years with W Thompson at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, he was appointed senior surgical registrar in North Manchester in November 1956. He was appointed consultant general surgeon to the Caernarvon and Anglesey Hospital, Bangor, in 1954. He emigrated to Presque Isle, Maine, USA, in May 1967 and he was attending surgeon at the Arthur Gould Memorial Hospital and the Community Hospital, Fairfield, Maine, until 1985. He died on 24 January 1985, survived by his wife.