Dent was educated at Mason College, Birmingham and St Bartholomew's Hospital, London from which he qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1897; after study at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Medical School he took the Durham University MB in 1898. He served as a civil surgeon with the South African Field Force in the final years of the Boer War, and on return to England obtained the Fellowship in 1901. He kept up his connection with the Territorial Army, and was awarded the Territorial Decoration and rose to the rank of Colonel, Army Medical Service (Territorial). After serving as a surgical assistant at the Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, he settled in practice at Wolverhampton, where he was surgeon to the General Hospital and medical officer to the Royal Orphanage. In retirement he lived at Hilton House near Bridgnorth, Shropshire, where he died on 13 July 1972 aged 98, survived by his wife with their daughter and one of their two sons. Publications: Strangulated inguinal hernia in an infant. *Brit med J* 1912, 2, 1139. Ruptured spleen in a boy, splenectomy; recovery. *Brit med J* 1913,1, 1054.