Born on 31 December 1878 one of the eight sons of Charles H L Fitzwilliams JP, of Newcastle Emlyn, Cardiganshire. His boyhood was spent in the country, hunting, shooting and fishing, observing nature and his own relative insignificance, though in physique he was a giant; these years laid the foundation for the philosophy he held throughout his life. In his late teens he and a younger brother were sent to Edinburgh to study medicine, and there he excelled both in study and in sport. He became amateur heavyweight champion boxer of Scotland and defended his title later; he also rowed for the University. While still an Edinburgh student Fitzwilliams went to the Boer War as a dresser in Professor John Chiene's hospital unit with the South African field force and was awarded the Queen's medal with four clasps. On his return he graduated in 1902, gained the Leckie-Mactier Fellowship and the Goodsir Memorial Fellowship, and was elected president of the Royal Medical Society. Whilst holding house appointments in Edinburgh in 1904, the MD with gold medal in 1905, the FRCS in 1906 and the ChM with high commendation in 1907. Fitzwilliams came to London and after holding the posts of house surgeon and casualty officer at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond street, was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at King's college and clinical assistant to the surgical out-departments of the West London Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children. In 1909 he was appointed assistant-surgeon to St Mary's Hospital; he was to work there for forty-five years. During the 1914-18 war Fitzwilliams was attached to the 1st City of London Field Ambulance and attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He served in Malta and Rumania, and in 1918 was consulting surgeon to the North Russian Expeditionary Force and was twice mentioned in dispatches. He was awarded several Russian and Rumanian honours, and was created a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur and CMG in 1919. After the war he was appointed to the surgical staff of Paddington Green Children's Hospital and later became surgeon to the Mount Vernon Hospital and Radium Institute for Cancer. He was also attached, at one time or another, to the Margaret Street Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, and the Dorking, Hanwell, Hayes, and Barnet Cottage Hospitals. A keen Freemason, he attained high rank in Grand Lodge and for many years served on the surgical staff of the Royal Masonic Hospital. His surgical interest was chiefly the operative and radium treatment of cancer, and he wrote several textbooks on the subject. Fitzwilliams was Master of the Society of Apothecaries 1949-50, and he also served as President of the Harveian Society and of the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society. He was much interested in the history of medicine, on which he wrote several articles. Fitzwilliams was six foot four inches in height and broad in proportion, with a commanding presence. He was known to be a very generous man, not only to his friends, but to the poor and the distressed. He was popular with his students, and his summer parties at his house on Monkey Island, in the Thames near Bray, were much appreciated. Fitzwilliams married Mary Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Oliver Dwight Filley of St Louise, USA, and they had two sons and three daughters. His first wife died in 1919, and in 1920 he married Francesca Christine Wagner MBE, daughter of Ferdinand Wagner of Riga. On retirement Fitzwilliams went to live at La Mesange, Mont Cochon, Jersey, returning to London from time to time. He died at St Mary's Hospital on 18 November 1954 aged 75. Publications: *The breast*. Heinemann 1925. 440 pages. *The Tongue and its diseases*. Oxford Press 1927, 505 pages. *Radium and cancer, curietherapy*. Lewis 1930. 172 pages. *Cancer of the breast*. Heinemann 1947. 199 pages.