Drevor Frederick Acton Neilson was born in Bulwell, Nottingham, on 19 September 1891. His father was an MD of Glasgow. He was educated at Dunchurch Hall and Rugby, at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at St Thomas's Hospital. After qualifying MRCS, LRCP he joined the Army on 30 January 1915 and served with infantry divisions in Gallipoli and France until his discharge in August 1919. He then did several house jobs at St Thomas's and was house surgeon to Sir Percy Sergeant and H G Howarth. He was appointed lecturer in the ear, nose and throat department and was consulting surgeon from 1930 to 1956. He had a distinguished career in his speciality, he contributed a section in the text book by Romanis and Mitchiner, was an examiner at the College and President of the Otological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was divorced from his first wife in 1936 and in 1939 married Pamela Chester Beatty, who died in 1955. They had one son and daughter. His hobbies were golf, shooting, sketching and water colouring.