John Adye Cholmeley was born in Farnborough, Hampshire, on 31 October 1902, the son of Doctor Mountague Adye Cholmeley and his wife Mary Bertha Gordon, née Cumming. His uncle, William Frederick Cholmeley FRCS, was surgeon to the Royal Hospital, Wolverhampton. He was educated at the Abbey School, Beckenham; Bengeo School, Hertford; St Paul's School, London (entrance scholarship) and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, where he qualified in 1926. His house posts were at Bart's. He then turned to orthopaedics, becoming assistant medical officer at Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital. In 1936 he was appointed resident assistant surgeon to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore and in 1940 medical superintendent. After the war he was appointed consultant there and at Clare Hall and Neasden Hospitals. Throughout this time he was greatly influenced by R C Elmslie, Sir Thomas Fairbank and Sir Herbert Seddon (qv *Lives* of the Fellows). He was a life member of the British Orthopaedic Association, serving on Committee from 1949 to 1950. In 1957 he served as President of the Orthopaedic Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. His practice was general orthopaedics but his writing was mainly centred on the hip joint. In 1985 he wrote the history of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. Through his mother he was descended from James Cumming (1743-1804), agent to the Duke of Devonshire. A family tree was compiled by Mrs John Comyn, a distant relative by marriage, and reveals three medical practitioners and two surgeons among his ancestors, a remarkable genetic record. He never married, and died on 12 October 1995, aged 93.