Frank Horan was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Cuckfield Hospital, Sussex and a medical adviser to Lord’s Cricket Ground, London. He was born in Manchester on 24 July 1933 and was educated at Torquay Grammar School, where he enjoyed cricket, cycling and table tennis. In 1951, he gained a place at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London, but failed his first-year examinations and was asked to leave. He carried out his National Service in the RAF, where he worked as a radar operator, and continued to study to retake his exams. He eventually persuaded the dean of St Mary’s to readmit him and qualified in 1959. After junior posts, he passed his FRCS in 1966 and held a research fellowship in Montreal, gaining an MSc from McGill University in 1974. On his return to the UK, he was appointed to Cuckfield Hospital in Sussex. He was a key figure in the development of its replacement, the Princess Royal Hospital at Haywards Heath, a purpose-built teaching hospital, where he became the medical director. His main research interest was dysplasias of the bone and he published more than 20 papers on the subject, many written with his colleague and friend, Peter Beighton, professor of genetics at Cape Town University. A bone disorder they discovered is named after them – Horan-Beighton syndrome. Horan was editor of the *Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery* from 1998. He travelled widely to promote the publication and to lecture on how to present scientific papers. As medical adviser to Lord’s and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) for three decades, he oversaw the treatment of players during test matches and county games. He improvised guards to protect batsmen’s chests and forearms, and developed heel inserts for bowlers. He was made an honorary life member of the MCC in 2006. He also treated jockeys, boxers, footballers and basketball players, as medical adviser of the British Basketball Association from 1976 to 1996. He founded the British Sports Trauma Association and was on the medical committee of the British Olympic Association. He was a keen rugby player as a student and later took up running. He ran Cape Town’s Peninsula marathon three times and in 1981 ran London’s inaugural marathon. In 1962, he married Cynthia Bambury, a nurse at St Mary’s. Frank Horan died on 4 November 2015 at the age of 82 and was survived by his widow, their two sons (John and Tom) and a daughter, Julia.