Stanley Willson Holmes was born in Reading on 1 October 1906, the son of Arthur Perceval Holmes, a company director and Emily Mabel Mills, sister of Bertram Mills the circus proprietor. His early education was at Hendon Preparatory School and University College School, Hampstead, after which he entered St Mary's Hospital Medical School. During his student days he won the prize in surgery, the Agnes Cope Prize in childrens' diseases and the Meadows Prize in dermatology. He qualified in 1930 and his early appointments were as assistant pathologist, house surgeon and casualty house surgeon at St Mary's Hospital; during this time he came under the influence of Duncan Fitzwilliams, Gordon Bryan, Zachary Cope and Arthur Dickson Wright. After leaving St Mary's he was house surgeon at the Coventry and Warwick Hospital and passed the FRCS three years after qualifying. He then joined the London County Council Hospital Service in 1935, serving for many years as assistant medical officer to St George-in-the-East Hospital. In 1945 after treating many victims of the air raids on London he was appointed surgical specialist at Mile End Hospital (where he stayed for 26 years). Three years later when London County Council Hospital Services were incorporated into the National Health Service he worked for the North East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board until 1969 when he moved to the London Hospital for his final two years before retiring. His outside interests were tennis, badminton, music and electronics. In 1936 he married Isabel Chapman and there were two sons of the marriage. He died on 9 November 1988 aged 82.