Born on 5 October 1910 in Lanchowfu, Kansu Province, China, he was the elder son of Albert Penard Laycock, a medical missionary and Winifred, née Hingston. He was educated at St Paul's School, West Kensington, where he was a Scholar. He gained scholarships to St John's College, Cambridge and to St Thomas's Hospital, London, and obtained first class honours in his Natural Science Tripos Part 1. After house appointments at St Thomas's and Addenbrooke's Hospitals he was resident surgical officer at the Gordon Hospital where he came under the influence of Ernest Miles. At the outbreak of war he joined the RAMC and saw service in China, India, Burma and Malta. He was Lieutenant-Colonel in charge of the surgical Division of the 14th British General Hospital in Bengal and Rangoon 1944-45, and Temporary Colonel in charge 1945-46, being mentioned in despatches in 1945. Little is known of his subsequent career except that he joined the Colonial Medical Service and served in Somaliland, Tanganyika and Nyasaland from 1948 to 1964. He then became senior surgical consultant to the Natal Provincial Hospitals Service until his retirement. In 1949 he married Winifred Worth who had served in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service from 1939. They had one daughter who is a zoologist. His younger brother was a consultant anaesthetist at St Thomas's Hospital. He died on 15 April 1990.