'Roley' Lee was born in 1906 to a Lincolnshire family, the youngest of ten children. He went to Brigg Grammar School where he was an outstanding athlete, excelling as much in swimming and tennis as he did in football. He won a scholarship to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and then went on to do his clinical training at St Thomas's Hospital and played football for them in the London Hospitals' Cup match at Wembley. Appointed honorary assistant surgeon to Northampton General Hospital in 1935 at the early age of 29, he worked there until his retirement in 1971. During this time he was highly respected as an operator, embracing the whole range of general surgery, including a special interest in hare lip and cleft palate surgery, thanks to experience with Kilner. Though small in stature, Roley was blessed with an abundance of physical and mental energy. This he channelled into a variety of activities, some medical, some paramedical and some social. He willingly embraced new surgical techniques such as plastic surgery and the surgery of peripheral arteries, but always tempered his enthusiasm for them with proper clinical caution. He belonged to a number of medical societies, relishing in particular his surgical travelling club, whose annual journeys (including Jordan and Russia) he regularly attended. He played a leading part in the planning and disposition of a new Outpatient department at the General Hospital, badly needed to replace an inadequate pre-war building, and he also founded his own private hospital, St Matthew's. In the early 1950s he resurrected the Northampton Medical Society, which had sunk into the doldrums after the second world war. Under his influence its monthly clinical meetings were well attended even though the only inducements on offer were ale and coffee. Nevertheless these meetings were significant, for they were the forerunners of the much more elaborate postgraduate teaching programmes which came later. Roley also rejuvenated the Medical Society Ball, which became a major social occasion in the town. He was always host to a large party, and was rarely to be seen off the dance floor. Among his many interests was the Chit-Chat Club, a modest local literary group of which he was the leading light. In later years he developed an interest in skiing and travel. He was a keen shot and is remembered for the particular affection he had for his gun-dogs. There was a memorable 80th birthday party for him at Castle Ashby, and he died quietly in his own St Matthew's Hospital on 9 November 1993, aged 87. He was survived by his wife, Julia, and his three sons Alexander, Nicholas and Christopher, who became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1995.