Charles Geoffrey Rob was born at Skipton Hall, Skipton, Thirsk, Yorkshire on 23 April 1909. His father was Henry Rob, a farmer, and his mother was Muriel Carter Mitchell, whose father was a general practitioner. He was a cousin of Charles Granville Rob, the vascular surgeon, who was Professor in London and then went to the USA. His education was at St Peter's School, York. He subsequently went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He got 1st class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos, Part I, in 1932. He studied at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London, and won the Foord Caiger Exhibition in 1933, 1934 and 1935. His early years were spent at St Thomas's Hospital where he was house surgeon to Sir Charles Max Page. He served in the RAF from 1939 to 1946 as an acting wing commander. He was mentioned in despatches in Libya in 1943. From January 1950 to September 1973 he worked as a consultant surgeon at Winterton Emergency Hospital, subsequently called Sedgefield General Hospital, Sedgefield, Stockton-on-Tees. He was an enthusiastic trout fisherman. He never married and, when he died on 11 June 1994, he was survived by his sister, Kitty.