Arthur Bryson was an orthopaedic surgeon in China, Nigeria and London. He was born in China in 1910, the son and grandson of a well-known missionary family. After surgical training in England he returned to China with the Council for World Mission, serving with the Chinese Red Cross in the Sino-Japanese war. A fluent speaker of Mandarin, he gained extensive experience of war surgery, dealing with battle injuries and air raid casualties. While cycling out to do home visits, he would smuggle medical supplies to the Free Chinese guerrillas, risking execution if discovered. In 1941 he was captured by the Japanese and interned in Lungha Camp, Shanghai, where he was made the medical superintendent. In 1945 he was put in charge of a central hospital dealing with the serious cases from the nearby prisoner of war camps. He worked under the most appalling conditions, remaining in the camp until all his patients had been repatriated. He then spent a year retraining in the UK and the USA, before returning to China as Professor of Orthopaedics at Cheeloo University, Tsinan. Eventually he was expelled by the communists as a 'running dog of American Imperialism'. He was then sent as a senior orthopaedic specialist to Kano, northern Nigeria, where he was instrumental in getting a new orthopaedic hospital built, and to which the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in the UK sent medical and nursing staff. Simple and effective treatments were devised, and the seconded staff learnt about conditions rarely seen in the developed world. For this work he was awarded the OBE. Following Nigerian independence, he was not permitted to retain his permanent contract, but was accorded the rare honour of a Hausa farewell at Kano airport. On returning to England he was appointed orthopaedic surgeon to King George Hospital, Ilford, and over the next 12 years built up a fine orthopaedic department, performing more than 500 total hip replacements, although he became increasingly disabled by his own osteoarthritis. When he retired in 1977, he was replaced by two consultants. He married Georgina Hart in 1954 and they had two children, a son and a daughter. He died on 20 August 1999, survived by his wife, children and four grandchildren.