Harry McGladdery was born on 9 September 1911 in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, to Kevin McGladdery, a farmer and landowner, and Margaret Wilson, a schoolteacher. He was educated at Walthamstow Technical College and Sir George Monoux School, before entering St Bartholomew's Hospital, one of five brothers to be trained there. After working as a casualty house surgeon at Bart's and a house surgeon at the Metropolitan Hospital, he passed the FRCS and entered the Malayan Medical Service in 1938. In 1941, he was co-opted into the Army. He was captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore in 1942 and only released in August 1945. He remained in Singapore and became head of the surgical unit, acting Professor of Surgery at the University of Malaya, and senior surgeon at the General Hospital in Singapore and the Lady Templer Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. He was appointed OBE in 1969. He was Chairman of the BMA in Singapore, published many articles in medical journals, and was editor of the *Medical Journal of Malaya* from 1953 to 1966. He moved to the Cayman Islands as chief medical officer, before retiring to Malta in 1976, where he continued to teach anatomy at the medical school. In 1937 he married Nora Peacock, who predeceased him. They had no children, but he had 22 nieces and nephews, three of whom became doctors. Three great nieces are also medically qualified. He died on 19 February 1998.