Philip Rhodes was born in Sheffield on 2 May 1922, the only son of Sydney Rhodes, an iron and steel merchant. His mother, Harriet May née Denniff, was the daughter of a butcher and farmer. He was educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield, and Clare College, Cambridge, from which he went on to St Thomas's Hospital for his clinical studies. He held junior posts in obstetrics at St Thomas's, Chelsea Hospital for Women and Queen Charlotte's, before joining the RAMC in 1948 to do his National Service. There he rose to the rank of Major. After his National Service, he returned to complete his training in obstetrics and gynaecology and was appointed consultant obstetric physician to St Thomas's 1958. He was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the University of London in 1964 and Dean of the St Thomas's Hospital Medical School from 1968 to 1974. He resigned his appointments in 1974 to take up the post of Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Adelaide in 1975, returning in 1977 to become postgraduate dean and director of the regional postgraduate institute for medicine and dentistry, Newcastle University, until 1980. He served on the GMC from 1979 to 1987. In 1946, he married Mary Elizabeth née Worley. They had three sons and two daughters. He wrote many textbooks and articles which reflected not only his interest in obstetrics and gynaecology, but also anthropology, sociology and history. He wrote an account of the medical problems of the Brontë family and a history of Barrowden, a village in Rutland. He died on 15 July 2002.