Mark Dunkerton was born in Rinteln, West Germany, on 3 March 1954. He was the son of George Henry Hedley Dunkerton, a general practitioner, and his wife Winifred Mary, née Cattell, who was a vicar's daughter. He attended Tormore Preparatory School in Upper Deal, Kent, and then Cheltenham College. After training at St Mary's Hospital Medical School he graduated MB BS in 1977. He held various house jobs at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, St Martin's in Bath, and Battle Hospital, Reading. He combined his love of travel with his orthopaedic training, working for a year in Cape Town at the Groote Schuur Hospital (which gave him more experience in the management of trauma than many gain in a lifetime) and then moving on to Australia. On his return to Britain he worked at St Mary's Hospital, where he developed an interest in upper limb surgery. This led to a period at L'Institut de la Main in Paris. He was then appointed consultant to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital with the remit of re-establishing their pre-eminence in hand surgery. His sense of fun masked a determination to excel both in his career and in his many interests. He engineered laughter and affection simply by being the focal point of a multitude of anecdotes, 'Did you hear about Dunkerton?' being a common conversational entrée at parties. His favourite sports were climbing, rowing, skiing and rugby, and he was also fond of painting. Soon after his appointment to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital he developed acute myeloid leukaemia and he died on 12 August 1992, aged 38. He was survived by his wife, Jill, and their 2 year old daughter, Sophie.