Ronald Jarman was born on 7 August 1898. At the commencement of the first world war, while still a schoolboy in the north of England and an active member of the Officers' Training Corps, he became attached to the Army Staff as a dispatch rider. Very soon, while still under age, he became attached to the Royal Naval Air Service, in which he trained as a bomber pilot. In 1917 he became a Flight Lieutenant and his duties included patrolling the Western approaches. On four occasions his plane was shot down into the sea, and there he had to wait patiently sitting on his plane up to his knees in water until he was rescued. Once he was not spotted until four days and nights had passed. Late in 1917 he received honourable mention in both British and French dispatches and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for sinking a German submarine lying in wait for a troopship carrying American soldiers to the Western Front. When the RNAS and Royal Flying Corps were amalgamated he became a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF and was then acting Flight Commander until the end of the war. Jarman entered Guy's Hospital Medical School in 1920 and qualified MRCS LRCP in 1926. He held several resident appointments at Guy's. He served as assistant anaesthetist to the dental school for over two years. Soon after this he became anaesthetist to the Royal Marsden, Princess Beatrice, Gordon and the Woolwich War Memorial Hospitals. He obtained the DA RCS in 1935 and the FFARCS in 1948. He became FRCS in 1964. He was awarded the John Snow Medal in 1969, this was the highest honour the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland can award. He travelled widely to the United States and Canada and Australia and New Zealand lecturing on his specialty and often giving demonstrations of his own techniques. At the Royal Marsden Hospital and in private Jarman gave anaesthetics for A Lawrence Abel for over 15 years. These sessions were often long and a large number of major operations were performed. Jarman died on the 15 December 1972 and was survived by his wife and two sons.