Michael Richard Colwill was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Mount Vernon and Hillingdon Hospitals. He was born in Bangalore, India, where his father, Major General Richard Freeman Colwill CBE, was serving in the Indian Army. His mother was Margaret Odette née Maynard. As was usual at that time, he was sent home to school at Cheltenham, but at the outbreak of the second world war was sent back to India, where he attended the Hallet War School in Naini Tal. At the end of the war, he went back to finish his education at Cheltenham, from which he went up to Magdalene College, Cambridge, to read medicine. He did his clinical studies at University College Hospital, where he won the Erichsen prize in surgery and the Fellowes' gold medal in medicine. After house jobs at University College Hospital, he joined the RAMC to do his National Service. He returned to specialise in surgery and was a registrar at Hammersmith and senior registrar at the Royal Free. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex, and Hillingdon Hospital. In 1957 he married Patricia Mary Stratton, by whom he had one daughter and one son. He died on 26 January 2001.