Kenneth Mullard was born on 27 December 1912 in Enfield, Middlesex, where his father Stanley R Mullard MBE was founder and chairman of the Mullard Radio Valve Company. His mother was Emmie née Hole. He was educated at Lancing and Clare College, Cambridge, and went on to St Thomas's to do his clinical training. After qualification, he did house jobs at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, a casualty post at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and was resident surgical officer in the EMS hospital at Weymouth. He entered the RAF in 1941 and rose to become a Squadron Leader and surgical specialist. After the war he specialised in thoracic surgery and trained under Sir Charles Max Page, Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors and Vernon Thompson. He published many papers on general thoracic surgery and oesophageal diseases. He married Phyllis Mary Smith in 1939. They had two sons, Bob and John. His hobbies were farming and flying. He died on 7 June 2002.