Robert Cohen was born in Liverpool on 18 April 1914, the only son of Leslie Cohen, director of a furniture company, and Rebecca, née Levy. He was educated at Liverpool College and the University of Liverpool Medical School where he distinguished himself in athletics and rugby football, representing the university in both sports. As a sprinter he won international honours in Paris in 1936. After qualification, he held junior appointments at Liverpool Royal Infirmary, and from 1940 to 1946 he served as a surgical specialist in the RAMC, rising to the rank of major. He was awarded a World Health Fellowship to the United States in 1956 and became FACS in the same year, after an attachment to the Mayo Clinic. Much of his working life was spent as a surgical specialist in Fiji at Suva Hospital, and he received the award of Chevalier de Nichon et Anouar from the French government for services to French Nationals while senior surgeon in the South Pacific Health Service. He was also a Fellow of the International Association of Surgeons. On his return to England Cohen worked mainly on Merseyside as consultant surgeon at Victoria Central Hospital, Wallasey, Clatterbridge Hospital and Newsham General Hospital, Liverpool. He married Barbara Nanette Hughes, a nurse serving with the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, in 1938. She later became a theatre sister and worked extensively with the British Red Cross. They had two children, Peter, a retail furniture executive, and Alix Helen. Robert Cohen retired to live at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, and later in Spain, where he died on 2 November 1995. His outside interests included canal boating and golf, and he was also chairman of L Cohen, Furnishers, Ltd.