Bryan Rowlands was born at Henley-on-Thames on 11 August 1917. He was educated at Henley and at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, graduating in 1940 in the middle of the London blitz. Being anxious to play his part in the war he did house appointments at Reading and immediately joined the London Scottish as a regimental medical officer. He served in the Middle East and saw action in Sicily and Italy where he received a severe wound to the leg. Having recovered he served with the 141st Field Ambulance and was demobilised with the rank of Major. He then worked at the Ipswich Group of Hospitals and as first assistant in the surgical unit at Sheffield. Here he came under the influence of Professor Brockman, obtaining the FRCS in 1947 and starting his lifelong interest in gastric surgery. In 1955 Bryan was appointed consultant surgeon to the Peterborough Group of Hospitals where he worked until 1972. He had a particular interest in the treatment of perforated peptic ulcer by immediate partial gastrectomy. He loved France and occasionally enlivened his operating sessions by playing café accordion music in the background. He was steward of Peterborough Cathedral and a humble and sincere Christian. His faith sustained him and his wife during the long and incapacitating illness which struck him in 1972. In 1951 he married Joan Angus. They had one daughter, Angela, who studied medicine at the London Hospital and became a general practitioner in Swindon, and one son, Peter, a barrister. Bryan Rowlands died on 3 December 1986 due to further cerebral complications. He was survived by his wife and two children.