Richard Harold Herniman was born in Chichester on 12 January 1934. He trained at Christ's College, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew's Hospital and besides the FRCS and MRCOG he later obtained a postgraduate degree in public health at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as Medical Attaché to the British Embassy in Laos for two years before joining the World Health Organisation. His first posting was to the Royal Laotian School of Medicine from 1969 to 1971. From 1971 he worked in WHO and supported projects in the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and the regional office in Manila, where he was regional adviser on health service development. He spent four years in Geneva at WHO headquarters on control of diarrhoeal disease, then returned to Manila as director of the division of health protection and promotion. He is remembered as a kind, cheerful and approachable man, the ideal international civil servant - expert in his technical field and in his relations with people of all races. He spoke French, Lao and other local languages and was interested in the history and cultures of the Far East. He never married, but maintained close ties with his elder brother, Peter and his twin, John, and their families. Tragically he took his own life on 31 December 1987.