John Cloke was born in Melbourne, Australia on 16 November 1919, the son of Percy Cloke MC, who had served in the Royal Artillery as a captain in the first world war, and Agnes, née Longden. His early life was spent in the country near Cosgrove in Victoria, where he attended primary school. In 1933 he moved to Melbourne Grammar School, leaving there in 1938 to begin his medical studies at the University of Melbourne. He graduated in 1943 with honours in surgery, and after working for a year at the Alfred Hospital as resident medical officer he joined the RAAF in 1944, rising to the rank of squadron-leader. He married Patricia June Flight, a physiotherapist, in February 1944. In 1946 he returned to the Alfred Hospital as an orthopaedic registrar, and took his FRACS diploma in 1948. His two sons, John junior and Geoffrey, were born at this time, and the family then moved to England to further his orthopaedic training. He subsequently held registrar posts at St Bartholomew's Hospital, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Guy's Hospital and Orpington Hospital, and then returned to Melbourne in 1951. He was appointed assistant honorary orthopaedic surgeon to the Alfred Hospital from 1951 to 1958, and then consultant orthopaedic surgeon at that hospital until 1984. He also worked at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne and Footscray Hospital for part of that time. John Cloke introduced intramedullary nailing using the Kuntscher nail into Australia which revolutionised the management of femoral fractures and was associated with very little operative infection. He also introduced total hip replacement using bone cement and the McKee Farrar prosthesis into Victoria after a visit to Norwich in 1966 to study this technique. Cloke was consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the RAAF and an active member of the Australian Orthopaedic Association, being its Vice-President in 1979. He served on the editorial board of the *Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery* from 1971 to 1976, and made many friends amongst orthopaedic surgeons in Britain and North America. He retired from the Alfred Hospital in 1981, but continued with his private practice for several years. He died on 29 June 1995, after a long illness, aged 76. He was survived by his wife and both sons, John, a mechanical engineer, and Geoffrey, an architect. His sporting interests included golf, tennis and cricket, and he was a member of the MCC for over fifty years.