Born 8 August 1868, the eldest child of Peter O'Malley, farmer, of Kilmilkin, Maam, Co Galway, and his wife Mary O'Malley, born in the same clan as her husband. Three other sons of Peter O'Malley also achieved distinction in medicine. He was educated at Galway Grammar School, at Queen's College (now University College), Galway, and at the school of surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, where he was first scholar in 1893-94 and in 1894-95; he also took first place with honours in midwifery at the qualifying examination in 1895. He made postgraduate studies in London and Vienna and then set up in general practice in London. In 1910 he took the English conjoint qualification, proceeding to the Fellowship in December of that year. He now specialized as an aural surgeon, and had a large and successful practice at 6 Upper Wimpole Street among the Irish community in London, of which he was a popular member. He took a leading part in the Irish medical golfing society, and was a member of the Sports Club. He was a genial, tolerant, kind-hearted man. During the war of 1914-18 he served as a major in the RAMC, and was mentioned in despatches. He was surgeon to the department of the ear, nose, and throat at the Royal Herbert Military Hospital, Woolwich. He was also aural surgeon to the Evelina Hospital and to the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, and consulting surgeon to the Royal Ear Hospital (University College Hospital). O'Malley made several contributions to the literature of his specialty. He served as vice-president of the section of otology, rhinology, and laryngology at the annual meetings of the British Medical Association at Nottingham in 1926 and in Dublin in 1933, when he was awarded the honorary MCh of the National University of Ireland. He was president of the section of otology of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1932-33. O'Malley married twice: (1) in 1906 Mary Hoban, and (2) in 1930 Julia Hoban. There were no children of either marriage. He died on 22 June 1949, aged 80, at Wharfedale, Cantelupe Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, survived by his wife. The funeral was at St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church, Mortlake. Publications: Suggestive points of analogy between oto-sclerosis and arthritis deformans. *Ann Otol* 1913, 22, 1007-19. Aural discharges, their significance and treatment. *Brit med J* 1934, 1, 741-6. Ventilation of the nose and accessory sinuses, oscillographic method of investigation. *J Laryng* 1933, 48, 309-325.