Charles Cochrane was born on 30 May 1904 in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland. He was educated at the Coleraine Academical Institute and Queen's University, Belfast. After junior appointments at Salford Royal Hospital and Fulham Hospital he gained his FRCS in 1936 and became a medical officer to the London County Council (like Norman Tanner). In 1944 he was appointed senior resident surgeon and deputy medical superintendent to the LCC Fulham Hospital, and became full-time surgical specialist in 1947. In addition to being an able clinician and operator he had an abiding interest in clinical teaching, first to senior students of the nearby West London Hospital, and then on a popular FRCS course at Fulham. In 1959 with the merger of Fulham Hospital with Charing Cross Hospital he had the satisfaction of knowing that his firm was a favourite with the students to whom he was affectionately known as 'Father'. Much of the success of the merger was due to his quiet sense of fun and unfailing courtesy to all the incoming academic units and consultant staff. A tall man with a marked limp, (the result of poliomyelitis in childhood and a Lambrinudi arthrodesis) Cochrane hated show and pretentiousness and was intolerant of red tape and bureaucracy. He married Sheila, also a doctor, in 1943 and they had three sons, two of whom became doctors, one of them, John, following his example in postgraduate teaching and becoming Penrose May Tutor of the College. Charles Cochrane died on 22 May 1991.