Allan Edwin Joseph Mullins was born in Haberfield, Sydney, on 19 May 1928 and after early education at De La Salle College, Ashfield, entered the University of Sydney for his medical studies, qualifying in 1953. Initially he entered general practice in Albury and Wagga Wagga but came to England in 1957 to pursue postgraduate studies. He passed the FRCS in 1960 and was subsequently senior surgical registrar at the Royal Northern Hospital. In addition to his surgical work his singing ability was such that he was able to accept singing engagements with the New Opera Company, Sadlers Wells Theatre and also with Philopera, London. In 1959 his fiancée Joan Sligo whom he had met at Wagga Base Hospital came to London and they were married in August of that year. He returned to Australia in 1963 and initially started in private practice at Penrith in the western suburbs of Sydney. He was appointed honorary surgeon and chairman of the department of surgery at Nepean District Hospital, Penrith. He was later also visiting consultant surgeon to the Hawkesbury Benevolent Society and Hospital, Windsor, and consultant surgeon to Governor Philip Special Hospital, Penrith. He had a special interest in the use of hypoglossofacial anastomosis in the treatment of facial palsy after radical surgery for malignant tumours of the parotid gland and in 1973 visited the United States to study the newly developed stapling techniques for intestinal anastomoses. He was elected a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1975. At Nepean Hospital he instituted postgraduate meetings and after some years played an important role in the development of a new private hospital at Jamison which was completed in 1967. Despite his heavy professional commitment he served as a member of the New South Wales Branch Council of the Australian Medical Association from 1968 to 1969 and was a co-opted member of the Hospital Committee Council from 1970 to 1977. He had a beautiful tenor voice and in 1981 he became president of the National Lieder Society of Australia and the Nepean District Music Club. The next year he was proud to be asked to sing Haydn's Creation at the Canberra School of Music and Bach's St Matthew Passion in Newcastle. Only a month before his death he recorded a tape of Schubert songs for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. He died in 1983 and is survived by his wife Joan and eight children.