Gordon Robert Seward was a professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the London Hospital Medical College’s dental school and a pioneer in the development of maxillofacial surgery. He was born on 18 December 1925 in London, in the borough of Hackney, the only child of Percy Robert Seward (a master baker) and Ruth Marie Seward née Mackenzie. After the local primary school, in 1934 Gordon entered the preparatory class of Hackney Downs School, founded in 1876 by the Worshipful Company of Grocers for 500 sons of middle class gentlemen. In 1906 it became a London County Council grammar school, endowing pupils with many qualities offered by public schools. On 2 September 1939, 401 boys, including Gordon, were evacuated to Norfolk, sharing a King’s Lynn school. He was very bright, fascinated with flora and fauna and was a corporal in the Cadet Force. His science master arranged for him to spend time in the Natural History Museum’s zoology and then mammalian osteology departments. They wrote: ‘Don’t become such a keen dentist that you forget to be a zoologist. In 1944 he passed the Higher School Certificate in science and mathematics and entered the London Hospital’s dental school with nine others. Only one person had previously gained the BDS (rather than the LDS), but he and others intended to do so. With no set course, they interviewed departmental heads, and organised lectures and a mostly ‘arrange it yourself’ course. Gordon won the class prize in dental surgery and pathology, the old students prize and one for radiology, which became a lifelong interest. There were also certificates in prosthetics, orthodontics and operative dental surgery. He qualified BDS (with distinctions in surgery and dental surgery) and LDS in 1948 and undertook non-resident and resident posts. 1949 saw National Service in the Royal Army Dental Corps. After treating patients in a sanatorium, he joined a hospital ship. In addition to dentistry, he aided a general surgeon during operations. With an early eye for accurately observing and recording all he did and saw, he kept a diary: the ship sailed from Southampton to the Bay of Biscay, encountered a gale and swung round and around, sailed to Gibraltar, then saw dolphins and so on. They embarked troops wounded in Malaya in the guerrilla war against British rule. Gordon returned to the London Hospital, attended Royal College of Surgeons’ evening lectures and passed the fellowship exams in 1952. Research gained him the University of London’s first master of dental surgery degree in 1953. He then studied medicine at the London whilst working as a general dental practitioner in the evenings and weekends, gaining the MB BS (with distinctions in surgery and obstetrics and gynaecology) in 1957. He undertook increasingly complex medical and surgical posts, mostly at the London. In 1956 he was a locum consultant dental surgeon at the North Middlesex Hospital. By 1958 he was a senior dental registrar. Then came academic appointments: in 1953 he became a demonstrator in dental radiology; in 1959, the first full-time lecturer in oral surgery; and in 1960 a senior lecturer. He also acquired knowledge and experience in other departments and elsewhere. Whilst their children were young, his wife Margaret (née Mitchell) held the fort while he travelled (he later reciprocated during her rise to damehood). In 1959 he spent six weeks with Norman Rowe at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup; in 1960, six at Mount Vernon; in 1967, four with Hugo Obwegeser in Zürich; and six in the USA with Fred Henry at the Henry Ford Hospital and Dental School, Detroit and Ann Arbor Dental School, plus Montreal and Toronto; 1974 saw experience of plastic surgery with J S P Wilson at the Westminster Hospital. In 1962 London University appointed him as a reader, six years later to a personal chair, and, in 1990, as professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery. Gordon became the first full-time departmental head and attracted outstanding people around him, including David Alexander McGowan, Hugh Cannell and Anne Aiken. Meanwhile, he was a consultant adviser to the Government’s Chief Medical and Dental Officers. His colleagues elected him as dean in 1975. Gordon was elected to the board of the Faculty of Dental Surgery in 1977 and was re-elected in 1985. He chaired its inter-faculty working party on implementing the Wylie Report on training in dental anaesthesia, and the examinations and hospital recognition and examination committees. He was the faculty’s representative on the library and publications and building and accommodation committees. Gordon was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England’s council (from 1983 to 1984 and 1986 to 1990). He became dean in 1986. A highlight was his awarding an honorary FDS to Princess Diana. He said: ‘Your charming smile, friendly manner and deep interest in children and the disadvantaged impressed us as representative of the ideal image of the dental practitioner.’ The Princess replied: ‘I was taught the importance of good dental health care as a very small child. Now that I have children of my own I am, of course, passing on that message.’ In 1984 the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh instituted an FRCS in maxillofacial surgery for medically/dentally qualified candidates: Gordon was an examiner. In 1986 he was awarded the FRCS Edinburgh; the FRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons of England followed a year later. Gordon received many prizes and awards: in 1986, an NHS A+ distinction award, one of only two for oral surgeons in England; 1979, the Silver Medal of the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and their Down’s Surgical Prize; in 1987, an honorary associate life membership of Society of Maxillofacial and Oral Surgeons of South Africa; and in 1988 an honorary fellowship of Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the first dentist to be so honoured. From 1987 to 1988 Gordon was president of the odontological section of the Royal Society of Medicine. In 1990 he received a CBE for his immense contributions to medicine and surgery and the British Society of Dental and Maxillofacial Radiology made him an honorary member. In 1991 he was awarded the Colyer Gold Medal by the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the John Tomes Medal of the British Dental Association, and in 1996 the Geoffrey Slack Medal of the London Medical College and the Jordan University Medal. The Faculty of General Dental Practitice elected him to the fellowship in 2002. Gordon co-authored a textbook on oral surgery (*An outline of oral surgery* Bristol, John Wright & Sons, 1971) and wrote many papers for specialists and general medical and dental practitioners. He was a quiet, gentle, family man and an excellent dinner companion, full of interesting discussion. Using his manual skills he constructed a dream kitchen, made broken toys better (a toy horse had a splinted broken leg), re-soled shoes, re-bound books and iced Christmas cakes. His daughter’s earliest memory is of Gordon showing her how to sketch a horse. He enjoyed classical music and musical shows, grew orchids in his flat and was an enthusiastic member of the Bournemouth Natural Science Society. Gordon Seward died peacefully on 14 October 2022, aged 96. Predeceased by his wife Dame Margaret Seward, the first woman president of the General Dental Council and the first female Chief Dental Officer for England, he was mourned by his daughter Pamela, son Colin and two grandchildren