Born at Sandgate, Kent, on Dec 7th, 1850, the eighth child and fifth son of Thomas Dent. He was educated at Eton (1863-1869) and at Trinity College, Cambridge (1869-1873), where he took a 'poll' degree in 1873. He was made Magister Chirurgiae in 1899 in recognition of his eminence as a surgeon; he had long been an Examiner in Surgery at the University. He entered the Medical School of St George's Hospital in 1872 at the age of 21, and in 1876 was House Surgeon. Between 1877 and 1897 he held the teaching appointments of Demonstrator of Anatomy, Surgical Registrar, Joint Lecturer in Physiology, Lecturer in Practical Surgery, and Demonstrator of Operative Surgery. He was elected Assistant Surgeon in 1880, and in 1895 became full Surgeon. At the time of his death he was Senior Surgeon and Chairman of the Medical School Committee. For many years he was Surgeon to the Belgrave Hospital for Children, which owed much to his constant guidance and to his generosity. In 1904 he became Chief Surgeon to the Metropolitan Police. Ample private means, which sometimes interfere with professional activity, had no such paralysing influence on Dent, and merely enabled him to concentrate his energies on worthy objects. He was active in the life of the London Medical Societies, serving as Secretary to the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society from 1901-1904, and at the time of his death President of the Surgical Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He read valuable papers between 1890 and 1903 before the Medico-Chirurgical Society, and in 1908 delivered the Annual Oration before the Medical Society of London, of which he was Secretary and Vice-President. At the Royal College of Surgeons his record was one of great distinction. He was Hunterian Professor in 1905, a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1902-1911, Member of the Council from 1903 to the time of his death, and Senior Vice-President in 1912. In 1899 Dent went out to the South African War on his own initiative and acted as Correspondent to the *British Medical Journal*. On his return he delivered an address before the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society on "The Wounded in the Transvaal War". As a surgeon he was conscientious, careful, and at times, especially in the face of unexpected difficulties, extremely brilliant. He was not inclined to operate unless he was convinced of the need and that benefit would result; and he was always anxious to make a diagnosis before rather than at the operation. Dent was widely acquainted with various forms of athletics, and as an Alpine climber had so long been famous that the world at large thought of him in this, rather than in his professional, capacity. He made the first ascent of the Aiguille du Dru after eighteen unsuccessful attempts, the first ascent of the Rothorn from Zermatt, and of other Alpine peaks, but his greatest achievements were in the Caucasus, where he not only climbed the peaks, but explored the range. He undertook in 1889 the sad duty of searching for the bodies of W Donkin and H Fox, who were killed on Koshtantan in 1888; he had gone out with them and would have shared their fate had it not been that he was prostrated by illness. He joined the Alpine Club in 1872, was elected to the Committee in 1874, was Secretary from 1878-1880, Vice-President in 1884, and President in 1887. Dent was also the first President of the Association of British Members of the Swiss Alpine Club. He was an expert photographer, and often exhibited the fine effects which he had obtained in the Alps and Caucasus, especially at the Graphic Society of St George's Hospital, of which he was at one time President. He had an extensive collection of photographs of patients, and in 1911 gave a cinematograph demonstration of gastric peristalsis in hypertrophic stenosis of the pylorus before the Section for Diseases of Children of the Royal Society of Medicine. He lectured in a manner peculiar to himself, but stimulating to thoughtful hearers, especially at St George's. In 1895 he gave a Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution "On the Influence of Science on Mountaineering". Two juvenile lectures on "How Mountains are Made and Destroyed" were delivered before the Society of Arts in 1897. As a colleague, Dent showed many fine qualities. At St George's he has been described as a staunch and generous friend of the School, a wise leader, an excellent chairman of committees, sound in judgement, weighty in counsel. He read voluminously, and what he read he digested. He spoke rapidly, as 'a very full man', to quote Dr Johnson's phrase, and shone at his dinner parties, where he displayed conversational command of many subjects. He was an art collector, a connoisseur in old plate, furniture, embroidery, etc. In early life he was fond of amateur acting, wrote a number of farces, and adapted Pailleron's *Étincelle* under the title of *Fruit and Blossom*. He was a member of many social clubs and was on the executive committee of the Athenaeum. His death was little expected by his many friends, who saw him in his usual health at the beginning of his summer holiday in 1912. He died unmarried on August 26th, 1912, of septic poisoning originating in pyorrhoea, after an illness lasting little more than a fortnight. He was buried at Kensal Green, the coffin being carried by members of the Metropolitan Police Force, hundreds of constables following. Interesting portraits accompany his biographies in the *Lancet*, *British Medical Journal*, and the *St George's Hospital Gazette*, 1902 and 1912. In the *St George's Hospital Gazette* for 1912 "L S" contributes a verse, "Ave atque Vale". In the *Lancet* and *British Medical Journal* are several eulogies, containing much valuable detail, from colleagues and friends. The following tribute was circulated throughout the Metropolitan Police District the day after his death: "It is with deep regret that the Commissioner acquaints the Force of the death of the Chief Surgeon. A singularly able man, he devoted to the Metropolitan Police Force, from the time of his appointment in 1904, his whole-hearted efforts. The Police Medical Service has been greatly improved under his care and guidance, and those who have been brought in touch with him by sickness will long remember the personal and kindly interest he took in every case. The Commissioner feels that he has lost an able and fearless counsellor in all medical questions affecting the well-being of the Force." He left estate to the net value of £116,263, and directed that a sum of £1500 should be offered to the Belgrave Hospital. His address was 61 Brook Street, W. Publications: *Insanity following Surgical Operations*, 8vo, Lewes, 1889. "Four Hundred Cases of Amputation" (with W C Bull.) - *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1890, lxxiii, 359. "The Behaviour of a Tendon Ligature" (with S DELÉPINE) - *Ibid*, 1891, lxxiv, 369. "Amputation of the Entire Upper Extremity for Recurrent Carcinoma." - *Ibid.*, 1898, lxxxi, 221. "The Wounded in the Transvaal War." - *Ibid*, 1900, lxxxiii, 297. "Congenital Hypertrophic Stenosis of the Pylorus and its Treatment by Pyloroplasty" (with E CAUTLEY) - *Ibid.*, 1903, lxxxvi, 471. "The After-results of Injuries." - Annual Oration, Medical Society, 1908. *Med. Soc. Trans.*, 1908. In this he embodied experience he derived from work among the police in connection with the difficult subject of 'traumatic neurasthenia'. "*John Hunter leaves St George's Hospital, Oct 16th, 1793." An Explanatory Notice of the Picture bearing this Title, painted by A D McCormick, RBA*, portrait of Hunter with Dog, 8vo, London, 1901. The picture was in the Royal Academy Exhibition. "Henry Gray," with portrait and facsimile of a letter by Sir Benjamin Brodie, 8vo, London, 1908; reprinted from *St George's Hosp. Gaz.*, 1908, xvi, 49. "The Nature and Significance of Pain," 1887; reprint of the Introductory Address St George's Hospital; delivered without a note. He translated and edited Billroth's *Clinical Surgery* for the New Sydenham Society, 1881. "Ankylosis," "Ligatures," etc. (jointly), in Heath's *Dictionary of Practical Surgery*. "Traumatism and Insanity" in Tuke's *Dictionary of Psychological Medicine*, 1892, ii. "Insanity and Surgical Operations" in Allbutt's *System of Medicine*. "The Surgery of the Heart" in Musser and Kelly's *System of Treatment*, 1911. "Intestinal Obstruction" in Latham and Kelly's *System of Treatment*, 1912, ii. "The Development of London Hospitals during the Nineteenth Century." - *Lancet*, 1898, ii, 1381. *Above the Snow Line*, 8vo, London, 1885. He edited and wrote a large part of *Mountaineering*, Badminton Series, 1892, 3rd ed, 1900, and contributed many articles in the *Alpine Journal*.