John Fairbank was born on 26 June 1912 in London, the only son of Sir Thomas Fairbank, the first orthopaedic surgeon to the Charing Cross Hospital, and Florence Kathleen née Ogilvie. He was educated at Wellesley House, Broadstairs, and then at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, as senior scholar, graduating with first class honours. He was awarded a university entrance scholarship to St Thomas's, where he obtained the Cheselden medal and a Beaney scholarship. His junior appointments included posts as casualty officer, house surgeon and then registrar to the surgical unit. Among the Thomas's men whose influence he appreciated were Sir Max Page, R H O B Robinson and George Perkins. He served in the RAMC from 1939 to 1945, starting at the Maginot Line and making a late escape after the fall of France in the last boat to leave St Malo. There followed a long posting to Gibralter, where his father taught him orthopaedic surgery by correspondence. In 1944 he took a field surgical hospital from Normandy to the Baltic. He completed his orthopaedic training in Manchester, Oxford and Alton. His appointment to Addenbrooke's brought him a large international following, helped by his sound orthopaedic skills and a remarkable flair for languages. Patients and colleagues came to Cambridge from afar. Questioning the later results of some cases of open meniscectomy, he showed the merits of the lesser procedure by arthroscopy. In continuation of his father's work, he wrote on skeletal dysplasias and jointly wrote the first book on the genetics of musculoskeletal disorders. He was a kind, though searching examiner of the Cambridge finals and a popular member of the RCS Court of Examiners. His house in Cranmer Road was a home from home for visiting examiners who, after a busy day at the June MB, enjoyed the swimming pool he constructed in his garden and would join in the musical evenings. When John fractured his femur skiing at over 80, his friends thought that would stop him, but he resumed with enthusiasm as soon as he was healed. John married Jeanine (Jinny) Hayes in 1946 and they had four children - Jeremy, William, Philipa and Clarissa. Jeremy carries on the family tradition as consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Oxford, his brother is an artist. One daughter is a 'Nightingale'. The reward of eight surviving grandchildren (Emma, Sam, Jamie, Lucy, Charlie, Alice, Edward and Julia) crowned a life of happiness and distinction. He died on 4 April 1998.