Kenneth Hester was a GP in Hertfordshire, an honorary surgeon at the St Albans and Mid-Herts Hospital, and assisted at Red House Hospital (now Memorial Hospital) in Harpenden. He was born on 27 October 1908 in Catford, London, the only son of William Clement, a schoolmaster, and Ellen Carter née Smith. Hester was educated at Eltham College, London, from which he won the Price entrance scholarship to the London Hospital Medical College. He qualified in 1932 and was house surgeon and resident accoucheur at the London Hospital, before becoming resident medical officer at Croydon General Hospital. In 1936, he became a general practitioner in Staley Bridge, Lancashire, but moved to Harpenden, Hertfordshire, in October 1937 and, apart from his war service, stayed there for the next 36 years. During the war he served in India under Sir John Bruce in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1942 to 1946 and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He enjoyed sailing, but found little time to do it, loved reading biographies and history, and was fascinated by railways. After his retirement in 1973 he took every opportunity to travel on trains across the country. He fondly remembered travelling on the footplate of an engine in India and being allowed to take the controls for a short period. In 1936, he married Muriel Harrison, a Croydon General Hospital nurse. They had four sons, Andrew, triplets - Michael, Richard and David - and two daughters, Mary and Janet, the elder of whom became a nurse. Two grandchildren, Rachael and Rebecca, are also both nursing. He died on 20 September 2001.