Kenneth Goldswain was born on 11 September 1912 in Dordrecht, Cape Province, South Africa, the only son of Clement Tyson Goldswain, a magistrate, and his wife Winifred Harriet, née Noyce. He was educated at school and university in Cape Town, where he qualified in 1935. While a resident in the Somerset Hospital in the Cape he came under the influence of the surgeon Lindsay Sandes and determined on a surgical career. In 1938 he joined the South African Army Medical Corps, where he contracted smallpox; shortly afterwards he came to London where he was joined by Mary Hockly whom he had met in the Somerset Hospital, and they married in 1939. He worked under ECT Milligan at St Mark's Hospital and gained his Fellowship in December of the same year. Being in England he joined the RAMC but was soon convinced that his proper place was with the South African forces: he returned to the Cape and shortly afterwards was with the SAMC as a major serving with the 8th Army in North Africa and Italy. After the war he joined a general cum surgical practice in East London and was appointed honorary surgeon at the Frere Hospital from 1950 to 1965. He became increasingly interested in the organization of the profession, joining the Medical Association of South Africa, serving first on the branch council, then as federal councillor and finally from 1971 to 1972 as President of the Association. He was the organizer and chairman of the Border Medical Plan for the local medical practices. Throughout life he was a keen sportsman; time-consuming cricket was followed by brisker squash until the quieter pursuit of bowls became his game. He died on 24 February 1995, survived by his wife, two sons, one of whom is MRCP London, and a daughter.